Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ODE TO NATURE, by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS Poet's Biography First Line: O mother gravely mild Last Line: O earth, and night, and nought, enfold her once again! Alternate Author Name(s): Myers, Frederic Subject(s): Nature | ||||||||
I O MOTHER gravely mild, Soul of the waste and wild, Behold me compassed in thine icy calm! Athirst, alone, again I call thee and complain; Here in thy temple raise my solitary psalm. II Athirst;yet not as though Thy fountains of the snow Could quench me, raving headlong from the hill; Let other longings cease With plenty and with peace; Athirst to the end is he whom only love can fill. III The light loves blush and bloom; They perish; they perfume A flying hour, and make a slight hurt whole: What more than this might be Hath heaven revealed to me In secret long ago, in sabbaths of the soul. IV When winds the Alpine horn, More than itself reborn Peals in the magic answer of the hill; Afresh, afar, afloat, A new majestic note From other lips is blown, in other airs is still. V Such was the love I sought; So to the hidden thought Might flash the unspoken answer of the eyes; No need of kiss or speech When, each inmixt in each, Thy heart in hers will call, and hers in thine replies. VI O hope too fond and fair! O angel in the air! O dying dream, which yet to dream was joy! Prayed longest, followed most Of all that heavenly host Who lured from child to man the vision-haunted boy. VII Sometimes the flying flame Was Fortune and was Fame; Thro' cloudy rifts a wildering clarion rang; Oftener an Orphic crown, From deep heaven fluttering down, Lit on a poet's head, and sweet the poet sang. VIII But first and last and best, Most longed-for, least confest, One form unknown descended as a dove; Low in my soul I heard One new melodious word, And all the boy's frame trembled at the touch of Love. IX They melt, they fail, they fade, Those shapes in air arrayed, Love with the rest; ah, Love, the heavenly friend! Only this Mother mild, Guileless as unbeguiled, Here in her holy place endureth to the end. X O fast and flying shroud! Cold Horns that cleave the cloud! Uplifted Silence unaware of man! Softlier, ye torrents, flow! Slide softly, thundering snow! Let all in darkness end, as darkly all began! XI Hence, hence I too had birth, One soul with the ancient Earth, Beyond this human ancestry of pain: My soul was even as ye; She was,and she would be; O Earth, and Night, and Nought, enfold her once again! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...INTERRUPTED MEDITATION by ROBERT HASS TWO VIEWS OF BUSON by ROBERT HASS THE FATALIST: HOME by LYN HEJINIAN WRITING IS AN AID TO MEMORY: 17 by LYN HEJINIAN LET US GATHER IN A FLOURISHING WAY by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA IN MICHAEL ROBINS?ÇÖS CLASS MINUS ONE by HICOK. BOB BREADTH. CIRCLE. DESERT. MONARCH. MONTH. WISDOM by JOHN HOLLANDER VARIATIONS: 16 by CONRAD AIKEN UNHOLY SONNET 13 by MARK JARMAN ON A GRAVE AT GRINDELWALD by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS |
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