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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AFTER A THOUSAND YEARS, by CHARLES MARIE RENE LECONTE DE LISLE Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: That night the loud voice of the sea was roaring Last Line: The muffled onset of embattled shades. Subject(s): Sea; Time; Ocean | |||
THAT night the loud voice of the sea was roaring Wroth in the darkened gullies' rocky cup, And, all dishevelled, clouds of mist were pouring Where round the headlands the whipt spume rose up. The howling wind smote all the shades asunder And tore them on the cliff-tops; savagely With bellowing fury as of taurine thunder It drove the herded breakers of the sea. Like an enormous monster, frenzy-driven, With bristling hide and mouth afoam with wrath, The mountain rearing in the embattled heaven Moaned dreadfully, its loins white with froth. Rapt by the desperate cries, I heard more loudly, O Vision, O Desire, O Life new-born! In the wild air your holy songs that proudly Called to me like the trumpeters of morn. And forth from the infernal cavern reeking My soul escaped from darkness and dire drouth, Into the feverish air of life, still seeking For Glory's laurel and for Beauty's mouth. And thus the dreadful night's loud voice spake to me: "Lo! Life is sweet. Burst thou thy sepulchre!" And the mad wind with its wild notes and gloomy: "Let Beauty draw thy being into her!" And I who seek this boon of hours appalling After a buried century of decades, Hear nothing but these savage tears down falling, The muffled onset of embattled shades. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS A FESTIVAL by CHARLES MARIE RENE LECONTE DE LISLE CAMEO by CHARLES MARIE RENE LECONTE DE LISLE HIALMAR SPEAKS TO THE RAVEN by CHARLES MARIE RENE LECONTE DE LISLE |
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