Oh how delectable it is to be Over against the sea When through deep gloaming, the drench'd dying gloaming In long long line on line the waves go foaming Strandward, aye voicing, 'Yea, eternally!' To watch where wave on wave of the rock'd flood Falls with a sibilant thud— Falls, and flows back, 'mid huge reverberations O'er the torn beach, 'mid foam for exhalations, 'Mid foam about its falling shed for blood; To hear, while equinoctial storms subside, The vast untiring tide Singing old Nature's mystic @3In Excelsis@1, Its strange self-centred psalm! Surely nought else is More sweet, more dread, more to be magnified. Nay, there is one thing more delectable Than the sea's echoing swell! To hear confuséd sound of many people At feast in shadow of each village steeple This day when years ago the Bastille fell; To hear, where flags flap red, and blue, and white, The cannon's hoarse delight, The bells, the clarions, the huge mystic throbbing Of marching feet, the laughter, the hush'd sobbing Of such as whisper to themselves: 'The night Slips from thy face, O France, and thou art fair Under thy laurelled hair After the traffickings of kings and traitors, After the shifts of priests and progress-haters, After much blood and infinite despair!' To hear this is to hear beyond defeat, Republican, complete, France chaunting myriad-voiced her @3In Excelsis,@1 Her ultimate choric song, than which nought else is More to be magnified, more dread, more sweet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEDICATIONS AND INSCRIPTIONS: 6. GRUACH by GORDON BOTTOMLEY LAMENT FOR CULLODEN by ROBERT BURNS THE CAPTIVE LION by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A LITTLE CHRISTMAS BASKET by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SOLILOQUY OF A TURKEY by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE UNSUNG HEROES by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR |