Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LAKEWARD, by TRUMBULL STICKNEY Poet's Biography First Line: Twill soon be sunrise. Down the valley waiting Last Line: "singing ""amor, amor." | ||||||||
'Twill soon be sunrise. Down the valley waiting Far over slope and mountain-height the firs Undulate dull and furry under the beating Heaven of autumn stars. To westward yet the summits hang in slumber Like frozen smoke; there, growing wheel on wheel, As 'twere an upward wind of rose and amber Goes up the sky of steel; And indistinguishable thro' the valley An endless murmur freshens as of bees -- The stream that gathering torrents frantically Churns away thro' the trees. Mountains, farewell! Into your crystal winter To linger on unworlded and alone And feel the glaciers of your bosom enter One and another my own. And on the snow that falling edges nearer To lose my very shade -- 'twere well, 'twere done Had I not in me the soul of a wayfarer! No, let me wander down The road that, as the boulders higher and higher Go narrower each to each and hold the gloom, Follows like me the waters' loud desire Of a sun-sweetened home. And as I pass, methinks once more the Titan From in the bosom of the humid rocks, Where yet his aged eyes grow vague and whiten Weary and wet his locks. Gazes away upon this brightened weather As asking it in reason and in rhyme How long shall mountain iron and ice together Hold against summertime. Long, surely! long, perhaps! but not for ever. Now here across the buried road and field, Torn from the dizzy flanks up there that quiver, Down to the plain and spilled In sand and wreckage lies the avalanche's Dead mass under the sun, and not a sound! The morning grows and from the rich pine-branches Shadows make blue the ground. To wander south! Already here the grasses Feather and glint across the sunny air. It's warmer. Up the road a peasant passes Brown-skinned and dark of hair. Some of an autumn glamour on the highway Softens the dust, and yonder I have seen Catching the sunlight something in the byway Else than an evergeen. And weeds along the ditch are parching. -- Sudden Once more from either side the ranges draw Near each to each; beneath struggle and madden Down in the foamy flaw The waters, and, a span across, the boulders Stand to the burning heaven upright and cold. Then drawing lengthily along their shoulders Vapours of white and gold Blow from the lowland upward; all the gloaming Quivers with violet; here in the wedge The tunnelled road goes narrow and outcoming Stealthily on the edge Lies free. The outlines have a gentle meaning Willows and clematis, foliage and grain! And the last mountain falls in terraces to the greening Infinite autumn plain. O further southward, down the brooks and valley, on And past the lazy farms and orchards, on! It smells of hay, and thro' the long Italian Flowerful afternoon. Sodden with sunlight, green and gold, the country Suspends her fruit and stretches ripe and still Between the clumsy fig and silver plane-tree Circled, from hill to hill And down the vale along the running river: The vale, the river and the hills, that take The perfect south and here at last for ever Merge into thee, O Lake! Sunset-enamoured in the autumnal hours! When large and westering his heavy rays Fall from the vineyards and the garden-flowers Hazily o'er thy face. And colouring thy bosom with a lover's Warm and quick lips and hesitating hand, He murmurs to thee while the twilight hovers Lilac about the strand, Thou, mid the grape-hung terraces low-levelled, Lookest into the green and crimson sky With swimming eyes and auburn hair dishevelled, Radiant in ecstasy. 'Tis evening. In the open blueness stretches A feathery lawn of light from moon to shore, And a boat-load of labourers homeward plashes, Singing "Amor, Amor." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN ATHENIAN GARDEN by TRUMBULL STICKNEY LIVE BLINDLY; SONNET by TRUMBULL STICKNEY MNEMOSYNE by TRUMBULL STICKNEY SIX O'CLOCK by TRUMBULL STICKNEY IN SUMMER by TRUMBULL STICKNEY IN THE PAST by TRUMBULL STICKNEY |
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