Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REVERIE, by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REVERIE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whether 'twas in that dome of evening sky
Last Line: And brooded over by the infinite one.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hedbrooke, Andrew
Subject(s): Immortality


WHETHER 't was in that dome of evening sky,
So hollow where the few great stars were bright,
Or something in the cricket's lonely cry,
Or, farther off, where swelled upon the night
The surf-beat of the symphony's delight,
Then died in crumbling cadences away --
A dream of Schubert's soul, too sweet to stay:

Whether from these, or secret spell within, --
It seemed an empty waste of endless sea,
Where the waves mourned for what had never been,
Where the wind sought for what could never be:
Then all was still, in vast expectancy
Of powers that waited but some mystic sign
To touch the dead world to a life divine.

Me, too, it filled -- that breathless, blind desire;
And every motion of the oars of thought
Thrilled all the deep in flashes -- sparks of fire
In meshes of the darkling ripples caught.
Swiftly rekindled, and then quenched to naught;
And the dark held me; wish and will were none:
A soul unformed and void, silent, alone,
And brooded over by the Infinite One.





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