Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE FRESHET, by HENRY DAVID THOREAU Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A stir is on the worc'ter hills Last Line: Her young disciples leaves behind. Subject(s): Nature; Summer | ||||||||
----A stir is on the Worc'ter hills, And Nobscott too the valley fills -- Where scarce you'd fill an acorn cup In summer when the sun was up, No more you'll find a cup at all, But in its place a waterfall. Oh that the moon were in conjunction To the dry land's extremest unction, Till every dyke and pier were flooded, And all the land with islands studded, For once to teach all human kind, Both those that plough and those that grind, There is no fixture in the land, But all unstable is as sand. The river swelleth more and more, Like some sweet influence stealing o'er The passive town; and for awhile Each tussock makes a tiny isle, Where, on some friendly Ararat, Resteth the weary water rat. No ripple shows Musketaquid, Her very current e'en is hid, As deepest souls do calmest rest When thoughts are swelling in the breast; And she that in the summer's drought Doth make a rippling and a rout, Sleeps from Nawshawtuct to the cliff, Unruffled by a single skiff; So like a deep and placid mind Whose currents underneath it wind -- For by a thousand distant hills The louder roar a thousand rills, And many a spring which now is dumb, And many a stream with smothered hum, Doth faster well and swifter glide Though buried deep beneath the tide. Our village shows a rural Venice, Its broad lagunes where yonder fen is, Far lovelier than the Bay of Naples Yon placid cove amid the maples, And in my neighbor's field of corn I recognise the Golden Horn. Here Nature taught from year to year, When only red men came to hear, Methinks 'twas in this school of art Venice and Naples learned their part, But still their mistress, to my mind, Her young disciples leaves behind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ADVANCE OF SUMMER by MARY KINZIE THE SUMMER IMAGE by LEONIE ADAMS CANOEBIAL BLISS by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY THE END OF SUMMER by HENRY MEADE BLAND THE FARMER'S BOY: SUMMER by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD SONNET: 14. APPROACH OF SUMMER by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES JULY IN WASHINGTON by ROBERT LOWELL ODE TO THE END OF SUMMER by PHYLLIS MCGINLEY |
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