Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GREAT LOCALITIES. AN ASPIRATION (1) by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER

First Line: OFT DO I MUSE IN CASTLE-BUILDING HOURS
Last Line: AND VISION SHOULD BE STRAINED TO MEET THY CASE?
Subject(s): WANDERING & WANDERERS;

Oft do I muse in castle-building hours -
O! might some trick o' the air advance the hill
Of Sion westward, I would gaze my fill
Upon her far-projected walls and towers!
O! that the realms our rounded earth doth hide
Could, maugre all the horizons, be displayed.
To my rapt eyes and heart - o'er land and tide
By some intense refractive power conveyed!
For I am bound by duties and constraints
To mine own land, or move in modest round
Among my neighbours; tho' my spirit faints
And hungers for the storied eastern ground:
Cease, dreamer! is it fit the laws of space
And vision should be strained to meet thy case?



Home: PoetryExplorer.net