BESIDE the lonely tower I gaze for thee, O clear-blue-eyed Tranquillity; The tower's green tassels wave and beckon me, And that way hurries the contented bee. Yet when I come, To stand in shadow of old martyrdom, Where stairs uptwisting shatter in the air, And conscience views blood-streaks and matted hair, The stone skull-eyes look down most drearily, And poisonous mood floats from the elder-tree Where unseen serpents wind. The eyes look down Where snouts of tree-anatomies toad-brown Pierce the green-scurfed pond, and waters lurch To the submerged fury and fiery-tortured search Of knife-like shapes, that only famine find. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HYMN: 2 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD A CRADLE SONG by WILLIAM BLAKE THE ANNIVERSARY [ANNIVERSARIE] by JOHN DONNE THE WILLOWS by FRANCIS BRET HARTE A ST. HELENA LULLABY by RUDYARD KIPLING CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR by ROSSITER WORTHINGTON RAYMOND |