Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 1, 25 by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: BY THIS LOW FIRE I OFTEN SIT TO WOO
Last Line: AND JUST AWASH, THE LOW REEF LIFTS ITS LINE.

By this low fire I often sit to woo
Memory to bring the days forever done,
And call the mountains where our love begun
And the dear happy woodlands dipped in dew,
And pore upon the landscape like a book
But cannot find her: or there rise to me
Gardens and groves in light and shadow outspread;
Or on a headland far away I see
Men marching slow in orderly review,
And bayonets flash as, wheeling from the sun,
Rank after rank give fire: or sad, I look
On miles of moonlit brine, with many a bed
Of wave weed heaving. There the wet sands shine
And just awash, the low reef lifts its line.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net