Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A SABBATH MORNING AT SEA, by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The ship went on with solemn face Last Line: To the full godhead's burning. Subject(s): Sabbath; Sea; Sunday; Ocean | ||||||||
I THE ship went on with solemn face; To meet the darkness on the deep, The solemn ship went onward: I bowed down weary in the place, For parting tears and present sleep Had weighed mine eyelids downward. II Thick sleep which shut all dreams from me, And kept my inner self apart And quiet from emotion, Then brake away and left me free, Made conscious of a human heart Betwixt the heaven and ocean. III The new sight, the new wondrous sight! The waters round me, turbulent, The skies impassive o'er me, Calm in a moonless, sunless light, Half glorified by that intent Of holding the day-glory! IV Two pale thin clouds did stand upon The meeting line of sea and sky, With aspect still and mystic: I think they did foresee the sun, And rested on their prophecy In quietude majestic, V Then flushed to radiance where they stood, Like statues by the open tomb Of shining saints half risen. The sun! -- he came up to be viewed, And sky and sea made mighty room To inaugurate the vision. VI I oft had seen the dawnlight run As red wine through the hills, and break Through many a mist's inurning; But, here, no earth profaned the sun: Heaven, ocean, did alone partake The sacrament of morning. VII Away with thoughts fantastical! I would be humble to my worth, Self-guarded as self-doubted: Though here no earthly shadows fall, I, joying, grieving without earth, May desecrate without it. VIII God's sabbath morning sweeps the waves; I would not praise the pageant high Yet miss the dedicature: I, carried toward the sunless graves By force of natural things, -- should I Exult in only Nature? IX And could I bear to sit alone 'Mid Nature's fixed benignities, While my warm pulse was moving? Too dark thou art, O glittering sun, Too strait ye are, capacious seas, To satisfy the loving! X It seems a better lot than so, To sit with friends beneath the beech, And feel them dear and dearer; Or follow children as they go In pretty pairs, with softened speech, As the church-bells ring nearer. XI Love me, sweet friends, this sabbath day! The sea sings round me while ye roll Afar the hymn unaltered, And kneel, where once I knelt to pray, And bless me deeper in the soul, Because the voice has faltered. XII And though this sabbath comes to me Without the stoled minister Or chanting congregation, God's Spirit brings communion, HE Who brooded soft on waters drear, Creator on creation. XIII Himself, I think, shall draw me higher Where keep the saints with harp and song An endless sabbath morning, And on that sea commixed with fire Oft drop their eyelids, raised too long To the full Godhead's burning. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS A CHILD'S THOUGHT OF GOD by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |
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