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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LOW TIDE ON GRAND-PRE, by BLISS CARMAN Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: The sun goes down, and over all Last Line: In grief the flood is bursting home. Subject(s): Grand Pre, Nova Scotia; Tides | |||
The sun goes down, and over all These barren reaches by the tide Such unelusive glories fall, I almost dream they yet will bide Until the coming of the tide. And yet I know that not for us, By any ecstasy of dream, He lingers to keep luminous A little while the grievous stream, Which frets, uncomforted of dream -- A grievous stream, that to and fro Athrough the fields of Acadie Goes wandering, as if to know Why one beloved face should be So long from home and Acadie. Was it a year or lives ago We took the grasses in our hands, And caught the summer flying low Over the waving meadow lands, And held it there between our hands? And while the river at our feet -- A drowsy inland meadow stream -- At set of sun the after-heat Made running-gold, and in the gleam We freed our birch upon the stream. There down along the elms at dusk We lifted dripping blade to drift, Through twilight scented fine like musk, Where night and gloom awhile uplift, Nor sunder soul and soul adrift. And that we took into our hands Spirit of life or subtler thing -- Breathed on us there, and loosed the bands Of death, and taught us, whispering, The secret of some wonder-thing. Then all your face grew light, and seemed To hold the shadow of the sun; The evening faltered, and I deemed That time was ripe, and years had done Their wheeling underneath the sun. So all desire and all regret And fear and memory, were naught; One to remember or forget The keen delight our hands had caught; Morrow and yesterday were nought. The night has fallen, and the tide . . . Now and again comes drifting home, Across the aching barrens wide, A sigh like driven wind or foam: In grief the flood is bursting home. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NORTHWIND ESCARPMENT by NORMAN DUBIE TIDE TURNING by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS THE HIGH TIDE AT [OR, ON THE COAST OF] LINCOLNSHIRE by JEAN INGELOW ULTIMA THULE: THE TIDE RISES by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE BOAST OF THE TIDES by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE TIDES by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT A MORE ANCIENT MARINER by BLISS CARMAN |
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