Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SUNRISE AND SUNSET: 1. SUNRISE, by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) First Line: Ages and ages since my boyhood woke from slumber Last Line: By the old ever-tender sea. Subject(s): Love | ||||||||
Ages and ages since my boyhood woke from slumber And all the hills grew bright And flowers no man can name, nor mortal heart can number, Gleamed in the gorgeous morning light. The sunrise shone around. And thou the spirit of morning, O sweet first love, wast there: And thou and I alone watched the green hills adorning Their fresh robes and their sun-kissed hair. The first sweet light of dawn fell o'er the ocean hollows And gilded the waves' way: And o'er the water danced and glanced the white sea-swallows, And our hearts were as winged as they. All things were then in front. Life's golden gateway glittered In the dawn's golden rays. Ah! one could never have dreamed that woodland paths were littered Ever with damp autumnal strays! I thought that I would sing thy beauty and thy glory, O far first love of mine! I knew not what snowfields, waste, trackless, sunless, hoary, Lay on the wild horizon-line! And now that I have sung, and thirteen years have fluttered Their weary wings away, Is there one soft look gained through all that I have uttered, Hast thou one word of love to say? Have thirteen years of song no voices and no pinions To reach and cry to thee? Hast thou no yearning still for our old royal dominions Of deep-blue sky and bluer sea? Is love of nothing worth now that the love is longer And of more passionate might? Now that the mounting sun of riper age flames stronger, Are the old sun-kissed hills less bright? If I have crowned thy brow with leaves time may not wither For all his wayward will, Wilt thou not, once at least, for old love's sake turn hither, Thy singer's heart once more to thrill? Wilt thou not look this way, that once again the splendour Of morning over me May flash?as ever it flashed when thou, first love, wast tender By the old ever-tender sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE INVENTION OF LOVE by MATTHEA HARVEY TWO VIEWS OF BUSON by ROBERT HASS A LOVE FOR FOUR VOICES: HOMAGE TO FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN by ANTHONY HECHT AN OFFERING FOR PATRICIA by ANTHONY HECHT LATE AFTERNOON: THE ONSLAUGHT OF LOVE by ANTHONY HECHT A SWEETENING ALL AROUND ME AS IT FALLS by JANE HIRSHFIELD A GIFT OF SPRING by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |
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