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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONGS OF CAPTIVITY: FAR O'ER THE OCEAN by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHERE ARE THE VINTAGE SONGS
Last Line: FAR O'ER THE SEA!

WHERE are the vintage songs
Wandering in glee?
Where dance the peasant bands
Joyous and free.
Under a kind blue sky,
Where doth my birthplace lie?
-- Far o'er the sea.

Where floats the myrtle scent
O'er vale and lea,
When evening calls the dove
Homewards to flee!
Where doth the orange gleam
Soft on my native stream?
-- Far o'er the sea!

Where are sweet eyes of love
Watching for me?
Where o'er the cabin roof
Waves the green tree?
Where speaks the vesper-chime
Still of a holy time?
-- Far o'er the sea!

Dance on, ye vintage bands!
Fearless and free;
Still fresh and greenly wave,
My father's tree!
Still smile, ye kind, blue skies!
Though your son pines and dies
Far o'er the sea!



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