Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SEA FOG by ABBIE HUSTON EVANS

First Line: THE WORLD'S A TEN-ROD CIRCLE; HILLS ARE GONE
Last Line: AND STRIP TO THE HEART IN FOG FROM OFF THE SEA!
Subject(s): FOG; HAZE;

The world's a ten-rod circle; hills are gone,
Unless this floor of scrub and meadow-sweet
Slanting to hidden nothing, on and on,
May be a hill -- I guess it by my feet!

The fir-tree dares not shake or even sigh,
For fear of spilling beauty, bright as brief;
The silvered cobweb scares away the fly,
And quicksilver slides down the mullein leaf.

Oh, fog-drops strung on birch like beads on hair!
On each red barberry there hangs a tear . . .
What wonder I forget the outer air,
Shut in with a little beauty plain and near?

Here's privacy with weeds, relief from sky,
A hollow in gray space; a place, may be,
Where one might lay disguises safely by,
And strip to the heart in fog from off the sea!



Home: PoetryExplorer.net