ABOVE the spring-tide sundawn of the year, A sunlike star, not born of day or night, Filled the fair heaven of spring with heavenlier light, Made of all ages orbed in one sole sphere Whose light was as a Titan's smile or tear; Then rose a ray more flowerlike, starry white, Like a child's eye grown lovelier with delight, Sweet as a child's heart-lightening laugh to hear; And last a fire from heaven, a fiery rain As of God's wrath on the unclean cities, fell And lit the shuddering shades of half-seen hell That shrank before it and were cloven in twain; A beacon fired by lightning, whence all time Sees red the bare black ruins of a crime. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE IYYOB TRANSLATION FROM 'A-15' by LOUIS ZUKOFSKY AD LESBIAM by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS SIBERIA by JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN NUPTIAL SLEEP by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE BAREFOOT BOY by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER APRIL by MARY RUSSELL BARTLETT A REPLY TO AN IMITATION OF THE SECOND ODE OF HORACE by RICHARD BENTLEY |