You live in a country stranger than the moon Where nothing casts a shadow. In that place Night has no secrets, and the ripened noon Sheds only empty warmth upon the face. The loudest surf is muffled on that shore, The west wind beats in silence on those boughs, And all the tongues that speak to the heart's core Lie like the Seven Sleepers and cannot rouse. We have not known that country, save in dreams, And they were terrible. How shall we then Find ways to come to you across the streams Of baffled sense? How, from the earthy den Where the keen spirit crouches warily, Shall we chase you forth? Upon your barren star You live beyond our means, and do not see Our coward ways, and changelessly you are Deaf to our lustful cries. Lean, then, and find Reason to pity us, who have by choice Turned from the luminous windows of the mind And from the grown soul's deep and arrowy voice. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: THE CONVENT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 11 by EZRA POUND JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG by FRANCIS BRET HARTE THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THREE FRIENDS OF MINE: 5; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW |