Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LINES, by EMILY JANE BRONTE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The soft unclouded blue of air
Last Line: As winter wind or polar snow
Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Ellis


The soft unclouded blue of air
The earth as golden-green and fair
And bright as Eden's used to be
That air and earth have rested me

Laid on the grass I lapsed away
Sank back again to childhood's day
All harsh thoughts perished memory mild
Subdued both grief and passion wild

But did the sunshine even now
That bathed his stern and swarthy brow
Oh did it wake I long to know
One whisper one sweet dream in hi[m]
One lingering joy that years ago
Had faded -- lost in distance di[m]
That iron man was born like me
And he was once an ardent boy
He must have felt in infancy
The glory of a summer sky

Though storms untold his mind have tossed
He cannot utterly have lost
Remembrance of his early home
So lost that not a gleam may come

No vision of his mother's face
When she so fondly would set free
Her darling child from her embrace
To roam till eve at liberty --

Nor of his haunts nor of the flowers
His tiny hand would grateful bear
Returning from the darkening bowers
To weave into her glossy hair

I saw the light breeze kiss his cheek
His fingers 'mid the roses twined
I watched to mark one transient streak
Of pensive softness shade his mind

The open window showed around
A glowing park and glorious sky
And thick woods swelling with the sound
Of Nature's mingled harmony

Silent he sat. That stormy breast
At length, I said has deigned to rest
At length above that spirit flows
The waveless ocean of repose

Let me draw near 'twill soothe to view
His dark eyes dimmed with holy dew
Remorse even now may wake within
And half unchain his soul from sin

Perhaps this is the destined hour
When hell shall lose its fatal power
And heaven itself shall bend above
To hail the soul redeemed by love

Unmarked I gazed my idle thought
Passed with the ray whose shine it caught
One glance revealed how little care
He felt for all the beauty there

Oh crime can make the heart grow old
Sooner than years of wearing woe
Can turn the warmest bosom cold
As winter wind or polar snow





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