As when down some broad river dropping, we Day after day behold the assuming shores Sink and grow dim, as the great watercourse Pushes his banks apart and seeks the sea: Benches of pines, high shelf and balcony, To flats of willow and low sycamores Subsiding, till where'er the wave we see, Himself is his horizon utterly. So fades the portion of our early world, Still on the ambit hangs the purple air; Yet while we lean to read the secret there, The stream that by green shoresides plashed and purled Expands: the mountains melt to vapors rare, And life alone circles out flat and bare. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LAIRD O' COCKPEN by CAROLINA OLIPHANT NAIRNE MIND IN CREATION by RICHARD BLACKMORE MERCHANT ADVENTURERS (WITH ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO SIMEON STRUNSKY) by BERTON BRALEY IN GREMIO by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN A PORTRAIT by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING BETWEEN TWO SEASONS by ELIZABETH BURNINGHAM ON THE BEACH; LINES BY A PRIVATE TUTOR by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY |