Azure, 'tis I! from the caves of death withdrawn To hear the waves break rhythmic on the shores, To see swift galleys clear, across the dawn, Lifting from darkness on the blades of golden oars. My lonely hands now summon forth the kings Whose salt-grey beards amuse my chaste fingers. ... I wept. ... And each his gloomy triumph sings And behind the stern of his bark the furrow lingers. I hear sonorous conchs and clarion calls Marking the lift of the oars and their even falls. The clear chant of the undulant oarsmen charms The tumult; and the gods! heroic at the prow, With their olden smile and the spray hurled at their brow, Stretch toward me their indulgent, graven arms. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO THE UNKNOWN EROS: BOOK 1: 10. THE TOYS by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE MY PRAYER by HENRY DAVID THOREAU SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 41. TO THE 'UNKNOWABLE' GOD by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) TILL THE MIST PASSES by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |