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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN A BYE-CANAL, by HERMAN MELVILLE Recitation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A swoon of noon, a trance of tide Last Line: Brave, wise, and venus' son. Subject(s): Venice, Italy | |||
A swoon of noon, a trance of tide, The hushed siesta brooding wide Like calms far off Peru; No floating wayfarer in sight, Dumb noon, and haunted like the night When Jael the wiled one slew. A languid impulse from the oar Plied by my indolent gondolier Tinkles against a palace hoar, And, hark, response I hear! A lattice clicks; and lo, I see Between the slats, mute summoning me, What loveliest eyes of scintillation, What basilisk glance of conjuration! Fronted I have, part taken the span Of portents in nature and peril in man. I have swum -- I have been Twixt the whale's black flukes and the white shark's fin; The enemy's desert have wandered in, And there have turned, have turned and scanned, Following me how noiselessly, Envy and Slander, lepers hand in hand. All this. But at the latticed eye -- "Hey! Gondolier, you sleep, my man; Wake up!" And, shooting by, we ran; The while I mused, This, surely now, Confutes the Naturalists, allow! Sirens, true sirens verily be, Sirens, waylayers in the sea. Well, wooed by these same deadly misses, Is it shame to run? No! flee them did divine Ulysses, Brave, wise, and Venus' son. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ELEVATED by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS SURFACES AND MASKS; 12 by CLARENCE MAJOR SURFACES AND MASKS; 2 by CLARENCE MAJOR SURFACES AND MASKS; 1 by CLARENCE MAJOR SURFACES AND MASKS; 3 by CLARENCE MAJOR SURFACES AND MASKS; 30 by CLARENCE MAJOR SURFACES AND MASKS; 6 by CLARENCE MAJOR SURFACES AND MASKS; 7 by CLARENCE MAJOR ROSE COLORED GLASSES by KENNETH REXROTH FORMERLY A SLAVE' (AN IDEALIZED PORTRAIT, BY E. VEDDER) by HERMAN MELVILLE THE COMING STORM' (A PICTURE BY R. S. GIFFORD) by HERMAN MELVILLE A DIRGE FOR MCPHERSON; KILLED IN FRONT OF ATLANTA by HERMAN MELVILLE |
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