Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CAMP-MEETING SUNDAY AT OCEAN GROVE, by ETHEL LYNN BEERS Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: From the bud of a cloud-calyxed midnight Last Line: When the wave bears us up the bright shore. Alternate Author Name(s): Eliot, Ethelinda; Lynn, Ethel Subject(s): Camp-meetings; New Jersey | ||||||||
From the bud of a cloud-calyxed midnight Comes the bloom of the clear Sunday morn, And the crown of the week with hosannas In sun-lighted beauty is born. I sit in the shaded Pavilion That centres these homes by the sea, In the city whose name tells its story -- Fair child of the wave and the tree. I see the oaks standing about me, God's sentinels, steady and true, Up-bearing their sky-rifted banners, Where sunshine comes brokenly through. I look up to pleasant roof-shadow, Strong built, 'gainst the storm to defend (It is good to look upward for shelter, Still upward, for aye, to the end.) I see a blue line over yonder, That sends a salt kiss on the breeze, And the sound of the sea, chanting softly, Comes echoing up to the trees. A cloud, soft and snowy, floats upward; I think, as I watch it flit o'er Out of sight, 'tis the glorified body Of the wavelet that died on the shore. Around and about me, uncounted, Throng worshippers, drifting together, As the leaves in the hollows are heaped By the gusts of the bright autumn weather. Blooming girls, in the pride of their beauty; Old men, with the almond-bloom crowned, Pale and pitiful worn women's faces, Where tear-drops a channel have found; Stout men, with their hardened hands folded; Fair children, whose song is a prayer; And grandams, who wait to go over, Full soon, to the "home over there." Now, they glow as the hymn rises upward, Now, bow 'neath a prayer-laden breath, Now, a shout supplements the glad story Of "ransomed from sin and from death." Rising now, hark! they sing "Coronation," Sing of kingdom and glory to be, Till the gates of the city stand open To the surge of humanity's sea. O beautiful Camp-meeting Sunday! When clouds on my path hover low, I shall call up thy happy remembrance To cheer me wherever I go. And tho' in this sun-lighted temple I'll meet this great host never more, We shall meet in the Lamb-lighted City, When the wave bears us up the bright shore. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A PHYSICAL MOON BEYOND PATERSON by NORMAN DUBIE ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE by VIRGIL SUAREZ CORSONS INLET by ARCHIE RANDOLPH AMMONS THE INVENTION OF NEW JERSEY by JACK ANDERSON CALDWELL OF SPRINGFIELD [JUNE 23, 1780] by FRANCIS BRET HARTE THE TWELVE-FORTY-FIVE (FOR EDWARD J. WHEELER) by ALFRED JOYCE KILMER LEGEND by JOHN VAN ALSTYN WEAVER CELEBRATION ODE by LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN NOT ONE TO SPARE by ETHEL LYNN BEERS |
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