Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, INVITATION TO A PAINTER: 3, by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INVITATION TO A PAINTER: 3, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Let me take you by the murvagh, sprinkled with those golden weeds
Last Line: Round its rocks and sandy verges.
Alternate Author Name(s): Pollex, D.; Walker, Patricius
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters; Fairies; Landscape; Atlantic Ocean; Elves


Painter, what is spread before you? 'Tis the great Atlantic Sea!
Many-colour'd floor of ocean, where the lights and shadows flee;
Waves and wavelets running landward with a sparkle and a song,
Crystal green with foam enwoven, bursting, brightly split along;
Thousand living shapes of wonder in the clear pools of the rock;
Lengths of strand, and seafowl armies rising like a puff of smoke;
Drift and tangle on the limit where the wandering water fails;
Level faintly-clear horizon, touch'd with clouds and phantom sails,—
O come hither! weeks together let us watch the big Atlantic,
Blue or purple, green or gurly, dark or shining, smooth or frantic.
Far across the tide, slow-heaving, rich autumnal day-light sets;
See our crowd of busy row-boats, hear us noisy with our nets,
Where the glittering sprats in millions from the rising mesh are stript,
Till there scarce is room for rowing, every gunwhale nearly dipt;
Gulls around us, flying, dropping, thick in air as flakes of snow,
Snatching luckless little fishes in their silvery overflow.
Now one streak of western scarlet lingers upon ocean's edge,
Now through ripples of the splendour of the moon we swiftly wedge
Our loaded bows; the fisher hamlet beacons with domestic light;
On the shore the carts and horses wait to travel through the night
To a distant city market, while the boatmen sup and sleep,
While the firmamental stillness arches o'er the dusky deep,
Ever muttering chants and dirges
Round its rocks and sandy verges.





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