Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: THE NORTH SEA, by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON



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THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: THE NORTH SEA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: By the gray sand-hills, o'er the cold sea-shore; where, dumbly peering
Last Line: Teach me unspoken, steadfast endurance; -- the silence of will!
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Owen; Lytton, 1st Earl Of; Lytton, Robert
Subject(s): Netherlands; North Sea; Travel; Holland; Dutch People; Journeys; Trips


BY the gray sand-hills, o'er the cold sea-shore; where, dumbly peering,
Pass the pale-sailed ships, scornfully, silently; wheeling and veering
Swift out of sight again; while the wind searches what it finds never,
O'er the sand-reaches, bays, billows, blown beaches, -- homeless forever!
And, in a vision of the bare heaven seen and soon lost again,
Over the rolling foam, out in the mid-seas, round by the coast again,
Hovers the sea-gull, poised in the wind above, o'er the bleak surges,
In the green briny gleam, briefly revealed and gone; ...fleet, as emerges
Out of the tumult of some brain where memory labors, and fretfully
Moans all the night-long, -- a wild winged hope, soon fading regretfully.
Here walk the lost Gods o' dark Scandinavia, morning and even;
Faint pale divinities, realmless and sorrowful, exiled from Heaven;
Burthened with memories of old theogonies; each ruined monarchy
Roaming amazed by seas oblivious of ancient fealty.
Never, again at the tables of Odin, in their lost Banquet Hall,
Shall they from golden cups drink, hearing golden harps, harping high festival,
Never praise bright-haired Freya, in Vingolf, for her lost loveliness!
Never, with AEgir, sail round cool moonlit isles of green wilderness!
Here on the lone wind, through the long twilight, when day is waning,
Many a hopeless voice near the night is heard coldly complaining,
Here, in the glimmering darkness, when winds are dropped, and not a seaman sings
From cape or foreland, pause, and pass silently, forms of discrowned kings,
With sweeping, floating folds of dim garments; wandering in wonder
Of their own aspect; trooping towards midnight; feeling for thunder.
Here, in the afternoon; while, in her father's boat, heavily laden,
Mending the torn nets, sings up the bleak bay the Fisher-Maiden,
I too, forlornly wandering, wandering, see, with the mind's eye,
Shadows beside me, ... (hearing the wave moan, hearing the wind sigh) ...
Shadows, and images balefully beautiful, of days departed:
Sounds of faint footsteps, gleams of pale foreheads, make me sad-hearted;
Sad for the lost, irretrievable sweetness of former hours;
Sad with delirious, desolate odors, from faded flowers;
Sad for the beautiful gold hair, the exquisite, exquisite graces
Of a divine face, hopelessly unlike all other faces!

O'er the gray sand-hills (where I sit sullenly, full of black fancies),
Nipt by the sea-wind, drenched by the sea-salt, little wild pansies
Flower, and freshly tremble, and twinkle; sweet sisterhoods,
Lone, and how lovely, with their frail green stems, and dark purple hoods!
Here, even here in the midst of monotonous, fixt desolation,
Nature has touches of tenderness, beauties of young variation;
Where, O my heart, in thy ruined, and desolate, desolate places,
Springs there a floweret, or gleams there the green of a single oasis?
Hidden, it may be perchance, and I know It not ... hidden yet inviolate,
Pushes the germ of an unconscious rapture in me, like the violet
Which, on the bosom of March, the snows cover and keep till the coming
Of April, the first bee shall find, when he wanders, and welcome it humming.
Teach me, thou North where the winds lie in ambush; the rains and foul weather
Are stored in the house of the storms; and the snow-flakes are garnered together;
Where man's stern, dominate, sovereign intelligence holds in allegiance
Whatever blue Sirius beholds on this Earth-ball, -- all seas, and all regions;
The iron in the hill's heart; the spirit in the loadstone; the ice in the poles;
All powers, all dominions; ships; merchandise; armaments; beasts; human souls;...
Teach me thy secrets: teach to refrain, to restrain, to be still;
Teach me unspoken, steadfast endurance; -- the silence of Will!





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