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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE HYDRAULIC RAM; OR THE INFLUENCE OF SOUND ON MOOD by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER

First Line: IN THE HALL-GROUNDS, BY EVENING GLOOM CONCEALED
Last Line: "PILES ITS DULL PULSES IN THE DARKNESS THERE?"
Subject(s): HYDRAULIC PUMPS; SOUND;

In the hall-grounds, by evening-gloom concealed,
He heard the solitary water-ram
Beat sadly in the little wood-girt field,
So dear to both! "Ah! wretched that I am!"
He said, "and traitor to my love and hers!
Why did I vent those words of wrath and spleen,
That changed her cheek, and flushed her gentle mien?
When will they yield her back, those jealous firs,
Into whose shelter two days since she fled
From my capricious anger, phantom-fed?
When will her sire his interdict unsay,
Or must I learn a lonely lot to bear,
As this imprisoned engine, night and day,
Piles its dull pulses in the darkness there?"



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