Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 2, 32 by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: O FOR THE FACE AND FOOTSTEP! WOODS AND SHORES
Last Line: SIDEWARD, THE RIVER TURNING LIKE A WHEEL.

O for the face and footstep! woods and shores
That looked upon us in life's happiest flush,
That saw our figures breaking from the brush;
That heard our voices calling through the bowers,
How are ye darkened! Deepest tears upgush
From the heart's heart, gathering more and more
Blindness and strangling tears, as now before
Your shades I stand and find ye still so fair.
And thou, sad mountain stream, thy stretches steal
Through fern and flag as when we gathered flowers
Along thy reeds and shallows cold, or where--
Over the red reef with a rolling roar--
The woods through glimmering gaps of green reveal,
Sideward, the river turning like a wheel.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net