O DEEP and clear as is the sky, A soul is as a bird in thee That travels on and on; so I, Like a snared linnet, now break free, Who in thee have but played before As youth bathes near a sultry shore. Then (as a floating nereid sleeps In the deep-billowed ocean-stream; And by some goatherd on lone rock Is thought a corpse, though she may dream And profit by both health and ease Nursed on those high green rolling seas) Languidly drifted with thy tide, Appearing dead to those I passed, I lived in thee, and dreamed, and waked Twice what I had been. Now, I cast Me broken on thy buoyant deep And dreamless in thy calm would sleep. Silence, almost I now believe Thou art the speech on lips divine, Their greatest kindness to their child. Yet I, who for all wisdom pine, Seek thee but as a bather swims To refresh and not dissolve his limbs. Though those be thine, who asked and had, And asked and had again, again, Yet always found they wanted more, Till craving grew to be a pain! And they at last to Silence fled, Glad to lose all for which they pled, O pure and wide as is the sky, Heal me, yet give me back to life! Though thou foresee the day when I, Sated with failure, dead to strife, Shall seek in thee my being's end, Still be to my fond hope a friend. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BONNYBELL: THE GRAY SPHEX by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: HENRY PHIPPS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SIXTEEN MONTHS by CARL SANDBURG SWEET STAY-AT-HOME by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES ON LORD HOLLAND'S SEAT NEAR MARGATE, KENT by THOMAS GRAY THE SUBALTERNS by THOMAS HARDY SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: SETH COMPTON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE MODERN MOTHER by ALICE MEYNELL WRITTEN IN THE BEGINNING OF MEZERAY'S HISTORY OF FRANCE by MATTHEW PRIOR |