Classic and Contemporary Poetry
GLOUCESTER HARBOR, by ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD Poet's Biography First Line: One shadow glides from the dumb shore Last Line: A widowed woman's heart. Alternate Author Name(s): Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart; Phelps, Mary Gray Subject(s): Gloucester, Massachusetts | ||||||||
ONE shadow glides from the dumb shore, And one from every silent sail. One cloud the averted heavens wear, A soft mask, thin and frail. Oh, silver is the lessening rain, And yellow was the weary drouth. The reef her warning finger puts Upon the harbor's mouth. Her thin, wan finger, stiff and stark, She holds by night, she holds by day. Ask, if you will: no answer makes The sombre, guarded bay. The fleet, with idle canvas hung, Like a brute life, sleeps patiently. The headlights nod across the cliff, The fog blows out to sea. There is no color on the tide, No color on the helpless sky; Across the beach -- a safe, small sound -- The grass-hid crickets cry. and though the dusk I hear the keels Of home-bound boats grate low and sweet. O happy lights! O watching eyes! Leap out the sound to greet. O tender arms that meet and clasp! Gather and cherish while ye may. The morrow knoweth God. Ye know Your own are yours to-day. Forever from the Gloucester winds The cries of hungry children start. There breaks in every Gloucester wave A widowed woman's heart. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WRECK OF THE HESPERUS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW GLOUCESTER MOORS by WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY THE PHANTOM BOAT by ELISHA NORMAN GUNNISON MAXIMUS, IN GLOUCESTER SUNDAY, LXV by CHARLES OLSON THE LIBRARIAN by CHARLES OLSON EVENING AT GLOUCESTER by ELEANOR JANE OLMSTEAD MIDSUMMER IN THE CITY by EPES SARGENT CONEMAUGH by ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD |
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