OVER this azure poplar glade The sunshine, fainting high above, Ebbs back from woolly clouds that move Like browsing lambs and cast no shade; And straight before me, faintly seen Through emerald boughs that intervene, The visible sun turns white and weaves Long webs of silver through the leaves. The grassy sward beneath my foot Is soft as lips of lambs and beeves. How cool those lilies at the root Of yonder tree, that dimly dance Through dews of their own radiance! Yonder I see the river run, Half in the shade, half in the sun; And as I near its rushy brink The sparkling minnows, where they lie With silver bellies to the sky, Flash from me in a shower and sink. I stand in shadows cool and sweet, But in the mirror at my feet The heated azure heavens wink. All round about this shaded spot, Whither the sunshine cometh not, Where all is beautiful repose, -- I know the kindled landskip glows; And further, flutter golden showers On proud Athenai white with towers, And catching from the murmurous sea (Stained with deep shadows as of flowers, And darkening down to purple bowers Through which the sword-fish darts in glee), A strife that cometh not to me. For in this place of shade and sound, Hid from the garish heat around, I feel like one removed from strain And fever of the happy brain, -- Where thoughts thrill fiery into pain: Like one who, in the pleasant shade The peaceful pulseless dead have made, Walking in silence, just perceives The gaudy world from which he went Subdue itself to his content, Like that white globe beyond the leaves! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HIS PRAYER TO BEN JONSON by ROBERT HERRICK KATIE LEE AND WILLIE GREY by JOSIE R. HUNT TO HIS DEAD BODY by SIEGFRIED SASSOON ANTIMENIDAS by ALCAEUS OF MYTILENE A BLESSING FOR THE BLESSED by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA MOONRISE IN THE ROCKIES by ROUTH PICKETT BRADLEY THE WALL by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN |