Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MAY CELEBRANTS, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Winter, the dotard, with snow-splashed hollies Last Line: Through the rough, brown bark she fades from sight! Subject(s): Love | ||||||||
Winter, the dotard, with snow-splashed hollies Wry-wreathed on his sleety streaming hair, Has fled from the rout of the April follies, Pelted with petals, to scorn stripped bare; Snowy smother and sleety glare Washed by the showers to swell the sea. The scattering streams are on their way. 'Tis triumph for every bud and wing! The doublets of all the trees are gay. The burdened branches flutter and fling Spikenard odors to scent this May With sweetness for every heart today. Then up and awayawayaway Away down the magic ways of spring! Rivers of ripple-dream, rivers roiling, Aisles of the forest, whose carpets deep Blue firstlings broider with fairy patterns Where mouldy Fall leaves once slept,the slatterns! Purge us and shower a soul's assoiling! Oh, sweeten our souls as we breathe yours deep! Shower us round with your flash and light, Wonder immortal and infinite! Here and there and everywhere, As a hare from its form, as a bird from cover, The ecstatic soul starts forth, aware Of the winds of spring and their rapturous wine, Starts passionate pilgrim and thirsting lover To new spells of distance and views made over Where freshly vestitured vistas shine. We are one with the impulse of the sod, With the flower's dream and the flower's God, With the burning bronze of the patriarch trees, With the burst of sky in the open glade, Uplifted, Olympic, and unafraid! We are beauty's bondmen on trembling knees, And aspen leaves at an aspen's nod. Oh, tell us, river so deep to gaze in, Diaphane that the sunlight, the elflight plays in, Where tossing tresses of brown and green Ripple and run crystal whorls between, Where the little wimpled wavelets dance, Toss fingers, and flicker a roguish glance, Oh, tell us, is not your dream to be In the cherishing arms of your lover the sea, Welcomed and soothed on the breast of the sea, That you hasten onward so joyfully? Here at the high cliff's foot, its thunder, Shocking reverberance of its might, The great athlete sea, of majestic light And furious breakers, and sound rolled under; With hiss and sparkle and seethe; deep-hued With stains that some sea-god's death imbrued! Here to sonorous litany Squadron on squadron the breakers flee, Dash and wrestle and clasp and drown. And afar we know, though we may not see, Old Triton, dripping and gurgled deep, With his trident, is loosing the gulls alea; Marshalling his host, green steep on steep, For assault where the drifted dune-banks sleep! Into the woods!for a light foot spurns Its marge, where the violets kiss the ferns. Into the woods!for a goddess flees Rosy and laughing between the trees. Yet ever her draperies, streaming free, Elude us, this daylight, to grasp and hold. A bird is her breast, and her veins run light. She is not for us in her madcap flight. She is far too shyshe is far too bold! So night draws on. Till presently With gem-like lustres the stars' soft fire Jewels the boughs of that darkest tree Whither gleams our goddess. One gesture bright Andsymbol of rapture and rich desire Through the rough, brown bark she fades from sight! | 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 THE FALCONER OF GOD by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |
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