Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SYMBOLS by JOHN DRINKWATER

Poet Analysis

First Line: I SAW HISTORY IN A POET'S SONG
Last Line: IN THE SHADOW THAT WENT BY THE SIDE OF ME.
I SAW history in a poet's song,
In a river-reach and a gallows-hill,
In a bridal bed, and a secret wrong,
In a crown of thorns: in a daffodil.

I imagined measureless time in a day,
And starry space in a waggon-road,
And the treasure of all good harvests lay
In the single seed that the sower sowed.

My garden-wind had driven and havened again
All ships that ever had gone to sea,
And I saw the glory of all dead men
In the shadow that went by the side of me.



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