Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN ARCADIA, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I, walking the familiar street Last Line: "find your old beauty in your lover's." Variant Title(s): Arcadia Rediviva Subject(s): Arcadians; Arcadia | ||||||||
I, WALKING the familiar street, While a crammed horse-car jingled through it, Was lifted from my prosy feet And in Arcadia ere I knew it. Fresh sward for gravel soothed my tread, And shepherd's pipes my ear delighted; The riddle may be lightly read: I met two lovers newly plighted. They murmured by in happy care, New plans for paradise devising, Just as the moon, with pensive stare, O'er Mistress Craigie's pines was rising. Astarte, known nigh threescore years, Me to no speechless rapture urges; Them in Elysium she enspheres, Queen, from of old, of thaumaturges. The railings put forth bud and bloom, The house-fronts all with myrtles twine them, And light-winged Loves in every room Make nests, and then with kisses line them. O sweetness of untasted life! O dream, its own supreme fulfilment! O hours with all illusion rife, As ere the heart divined what ill meant! "Et ego," sighed I to myself, And strove some vain regrets to bridle, "Though now laid dusty on the shelf, Was hero once of such an idyl! "An idyl ever newly sweet, Although since Adam's day recited, Whose measures time them to Love's feet, Whose sense is every ill requited." Maiden, if I may counsel, drain Each drop of this enchanted season, For even our honeymoons must wane, Convicted of green cheese by Reason. And none will seem so safe from change, Nor in such skies benignant hover, As this, beneath whose witchery strange You tread on rose-leaves with your lover. The glass unfilled all tastes can fit, As round its brim Conjecture dances; For not Mephisto's self hath wit To draw such vintages as Fancy's. When our pulse beats its minor key, When play-time halves and school-time doubles, Age fills the cup with serious tea, Which once Dame Clicquot starred with bubbles. "Fie, Mr. Graybeard! Is this wise? Is this the moral of a poet, Who, when the plant of Eden dies, Is privileged once more to sow it? "That herb of clay-disdaining root, From stars secreting what it feeds on, Is burnt-out passion's slag and soot Fit soil to strew its dainty seeds on? "Pray, why, if in Arcadia once, Need one so soon forget the way there? Or why, once there, be such a dunce As not contentedly to stay there?" Dear child, 't was but a sorry jest, And from my heart I hate the cynic Who makes the Book of Life a nest For comments staler than rabbinic. If Love his simple spell but keep, Life with ideal eyes to flatter, The Grail itself were crockery cheap To Every-day's communion-platter. One Darby is to me well known, Who, as the hearth between them blazes, Sees the old moonlight shine on Joan, And float her youthward in its hazes. He rubs his spectacles, he stares, 'T is the same face that witched him early! He gropes-for his remaining hairs, Is this a fleece that feels so curly? "Good heavens! but now 't was winter gray, And I of years had more than plenty; The almanac 's a fool! 'T is May! Hang family Bibles! I am twenty! "Come, Joan, your arm; we'll walk the room The lane, I mean& #151; do you remember? How confident the roses bloom, As if it ne'er could be December! "Nor more it shall, while in your eyes My heart its summer heat recovers, And you, howe'er your mirror lies, Find your old beauty in your lover's." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN ARCADIE by JOSEPHINE AUGUSTA CASS DE HISTRICE. EX CLAUDIANO by CLAUDIAN LEUCADIAM ARTEMIS by HILDA DOOLITTLE IN ARCADIE by HELEN MERRILL EGERTON THE LOST LAND by THEODOSIA (PICKERING) GARRISON AND I TOO IN ARCADIA; SUGGESTED BY A CELEBRATED PICTURE OF POUSSIN by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE SHIPS OF ARCADY by FRANCIS LEDWIDGE THE SECRET OF ARCADY by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON PAN IN WINTER by BENJAMIN FRANCIS MUSSER AFTER THE BURIAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |
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