ACROSS the sombre prairie sea The dark swells billow heavily. Are the looming ridges near or far That heave to the smooth horizon-bar? The russet reach of grassy roll sickens the heart and numbs the soul; The thin wind gives no air for breath; The stillness is the pause of death. This width was never shaped to be The home of man's mortality, A breathless vacuum of peace, Where life's spent ripples spread and cease. No end, no source, its spaces know; Wide as the sea's perpetual flow Is its dead stand -- dull wall on wall Of sullen waves unspiritual. God give me but in dream to come Back to the pine-clad hills of home, Back to the old eternity Of placid, all-consoling sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FIRST SNOWFALL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE RAINY SUMMER by ALICE MEYNELL THE PAUPER'S DRIVE by THOMAS NOEL THE FLYING DUTCHMAN by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON SOUTHERN PACIFIC by CARL SANDBURG QUATRAIN: HERRICK by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 45. A LITTLE WHILE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |