Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A VERSION OF THE OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN, by GEORGE GORDON BYRON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: O thou! Who rollest in yon azure field Last Line: The weary traveller shrinks and sighs for home. Alternate Author Name(s): Byron, Lord; Byron, 6th Baron Subject(s): Sun | ||||||||
(FROM THE POEM 'CARTHON') O THOU! who rollest in yon azure field, Round as the orb of my forefathers' shield, Whence are thy beams? From what eternal store Dost thou, O Sun! thy vast effulgence pour? In awful grandeur, when thou movest on high, The stars start back and hide them in the sky; The pale Moon sickens in thy brightening blaze, And in the western wave avoids thy gaze. Alone thou shinest forth -- for who can rise Companion of thy splendour in the skies! The mountain oaks are seen to fall away -- Mountains themselves by length of years decay -- With ebbs and flows is the rough Ocean tost; In heaven the Moon is for a season lost, But thou, amidst the fulness of thy joy, The same art ever, blazing in the sky! When tempests wrap the world from pole to pole, When vivid lightnings flash and thunders roll, Thou far above their utmost fury borne, Look'st forth in beauty, laughing them to scorn. But vainly now on me thy beauties blaze -- Ossian no longer can enraptured gaze! Whether at morn, in lucid lustre gay, On eastern clouds thy yellow tresses play, Or else at eve, in radiant glory drest, Thou tremblest at the portals of the west, I see no more! But thou mayest fail at length, Like Ossian lose thy beauty and thy strength, Like him -- but for a season -- in thy sphere To shine with splendour, then to disappear! Thy years shall have an end, and thou no more Bright through the world enlivening radiance pour, But sleep within thy clouds, and fail to rise, Heedless when Morning calls thee to the skies! Then now exult, O Sun! and gaily shine, While Youth and Strength and Beauty all are thine. For Age is dark, unlovely, as the light Shed by the Moon when clouds deform the night, Glimmering uncertain as they hurry past. Loud o'er the plain is heard the northern blast, Mists shroud the hills, and 'neath the growing gloom, The weary traveller shrinks and sighs for home. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOURNEY INTO THE EYE by DAVID LEHMAN AGAINST EXCESS OF SEA OR SUN OR REASON by WILLIAM MEREDITH WHY I WAKE EARLY by MARY OLIVER CONTRA MORTEM: THE SUN by HAYDEN CARRUTH SERPENT SUN EYE BEWITCHING MY EYE by AIME CESAIRE ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE PREACHER' by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |
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