Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE ATLANTIDES, by HENRY DAVID THOREAU Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The smothered streams of love, which flow Last Line: And the ventures of past years. Subject(s): Atlantic Ocean | ||||||||
The smothered streams of love, which flow More bright than Phlegethon, more low, Island us ever, like the sea, In an Atlantic mystery. Our fabled shores none ever reach, No mariner has found our beach, Scarcely our image now is seen, And neighboring waves with floating green, Yet still the oldest charts contain Some dotted outline of our main; In ancient times midsummer days Unto the western islands' gaze, To Teneriffe and the Azores, Have shown our faint and cloud-like shores. But sink not yet, ye desolate isles, Anon your coast with commerce smiles, And richer freights ye'll furnish far Than Africa or Malabar. Be fair, be fertile evermore, Ye rumored but untrodden shore; Princes and monarchs will contend Who first unto your lands shall send, And pawn the jewels of the crown To call your distant soil their own. Sea and land are but his neighbors, And companions in his labors, Who on the ocean's verge and firm land's end Doth long and truly seek his Friend. Many men dwell far inland, But he alone sits on the strand. Whether he ponders men or books, Always still he seaward looks, Marine news he ever reads, And the slightest glances heeds, Feels the sea breeze on his cheek, At each word the landsmen speak, In every companion's eye A sailing vessel doth descry; In the ocean's sullen roar From some distant port he hears, Of wrecks upon a distant shore, And the ventures of past years. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NORTH ATLANTIC by CARL SANDBURG CROSSING THE ATLANTIC by ANNE SEXTON THE CASTAWAY by WILLIAM COWPER SEAWEED by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW A SEASHORE IDYL by ELLEN W. CUNNINGHAM EVENING SONG: 4 by HEINRICH HEINE WIND FROM THE SEA by JOSE-MARIA DE HEREDIA (1842-1905) WIND, MOON, AND TIDES by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS |
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