Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONG OF PALMS, by ARTHUR WILLIAM EDGAR O'SHAUGHNESSY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Mighty, luminous, and calm Last Line: Dwarf cane and tall marití. Alternate Author Name(s): O'shaughnessy, Arthur W. E. Subject(s): Palm Trees | ||||||||
MIGHTY, luminous, and calm Is the country of the palm, Crowned with sunset and sunrise, Under blue unbroken skies, Waving from green zone to zone, Over wonders of its own; Trackless, untraversed, unknown, Changeless through the centuries. Who can say what thing it bears? Blazing bird and blooming flower, Dwelling there for years and years, Hold the enchanted secret theirs: Life and death and dream have made Mysteries in many a shade, Hollow haunt and hidden bower Closed alike to sun and shower. Who is ruler of each race Living in each boundless place, Growing, flowering, and flying, Glowing, revelling, and dying? Wave-like, palm by palm is stirred, And the bird sings to the bird, And the day sings one rich word, And the great night comes replying. Long red reaches of the cane, Yellow winding water-lane, Verdant isle and amber river, Lisp and murmur back again, And ripe under-worlds deliver Rapturous souls of perfume, hurled Up to where green oceans quiver In the wide leaves' restless world. Many thousand years have been, And the sun alone hath seen, Like a high and radiant ocean, All the fair palm world in motion; But the crimson bird hath fed With its mate of equal red, And the flower in soft explosion With the flower hath been wed. And its long luxuriant thought Lofty palm to palm hath taught, While a single vast liana All one brotherhood hath wrought, Crossing forest and savannah, Binding fern and coco-tree, Fig-tree, buttress-tree, banana, Dwarf cane and tall marití. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PALM TREE by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE ARAB TO THE PALM by BAYARD TAYLOR THE PALM-TREE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE PALM TREE by ABD-AR RAHMAN I WAY DOWN SOUTH ON THE OLD S'WANNEE by BENJAMIN D. DAVIES THE DOVES by THEOPHILE GAUTIER PALM SONG by ELSE LASKER-SCHULER |
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