Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 1, 12 by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: TALL STATELY PLANTS WITH SPIKES AND FORKS OF GOLD
Last Line: FALLEN IN THE SWORDSWING OF HIS STORMY HAND.

Tall stately plants with spikes and forks of gold
Crowd every slope: my heart repeats its cry,
A cry for strength, for strength and victory:
The will to strive, the courage overbold
That would have moved me once to turn indeed
And level with the dust each lordly weed.
But now I weep upon my wayside walks
And sigh for those fair days, when glorying
I stood a boy amid the mullein-stalks
And wished myself like him the Lion King:
There, where his shield shed arrows and his helm
Rang like a bell beaten with axe and brand,
He pushed the battle backward, realm on realm
Fallen in the swordswing of his stormy hand.



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