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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FOG, by EDWARD BLISS REED First Line: All morn a driving rain swept down Last Line: "and the mists have shrouded the brain." | |||
All morn a driving rain swept down And blurred with mist the fishing town Skirting the wooded bay, Till the meadow grass bent with its silver load, New brooks dashed over the sodden road, And the tamarack tops turned gray. At noon the rain ceased. Then there came The fog—smoke of a sea aflame, The dead earth's shroud of white. It hid the wharf and the church on the hill, It covered the woods—and the birds were still, It blotted the harbor light. And all night long with a mournful clang The lighthouse bell in warning rang Lest the reef might seize a prey. And faintly, far through the mist inborne, Some laboring vessel's distant horn Sounded, then died away. By the harbor's edge, in that gray house there, An old man sits all night in his chair, For the mists on his mind have lain. He stirs at the sound of the tolling bell, His lips move—something he strives to tell, Then his head drops down again. Morn, and a warm earth born anew; All that the mists had wrapped from view Glows in revealing light. There are jewels hung from the pine tree's spill, All glittering white is the church on the hill, But the old man sits in night. "Death, churl death," men have vainly prayed, "Let thy coming be long delayed." Mine is a better strain: "Call me to rest when the heaven shines blue, Let me not live when my life is through And the mists have shrouded the brain." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A PICTURE by EDWARD BLISS REED A PORTRAIT by EDWARD BLISS REED ADVENTURE by EDWARD BLISS REED CAVALIER SONG: 1642 by EDWARD BLISS REED FRAGRANCE by EDWARD BLISS REED |
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