DEEP in our soul-seas there are sunken hopes That once gleamed marble-white, pure shafts of stone With carvings thereupon of cryptic joy Long, long forgotten; streets submerged, that erst Were brave with every sign of festal life; And scented groves that stand for dreams; and near, Great towers stately builded, palaces For pleasure-making when the time was May; All dim in tangles of mermaiden's hair. The traffic of a world of elder time Choked potently by water, and engirt With grewsome shapes and growths beneath the brine. Deep in our soul-seas, drowned; while present waves Push down and hide the lost Atlantis, once So regnant in our Past; and summer sails Fleet onward toward new western isles, since man Must ever gear him for new quests, and leave The mute memorials of the lapsed years. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOLY CROSS DAY by ROBERT BROWNING ADDRESS TO THE UNCO GUID, OR THE RIGIDLY RIGHTEOUS by ROBERT BURNS THE TWO MYSTERIES by MARY ELIZABETH MAPES DODGE COUSIN NANCY by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS! by WALT WHITMAN A SNOWFLAKE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH A DAY: AN EPISTLE TO JOHN WILKES, OF AYLESBURY, ESQ. by JOHN ARMSTRONG ECLOGUE ON ELIZABETH BELSHAM by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE WEDDING DAY; OR, THE BUCCANEER'S CURSE; A FAMILY LEGEND by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM |