Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE IVORY GATE, by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS First Line: When, lov'd by poet and painter Last Line: Mong dreams of the ivory gate. Alternate Author Name(s): Collins, Mortimer | ||||||||
WHEN, lov'd by poet and painter, The sunrise fills the sky, When night's gold urns grow fainter, And in depths of amber die -- When the morn-breeze stirs the curtain, Bearing an odorous freight -- Then visions strange, uncertain, Pour thick through the Ivory Gate. Then the oars of Ithaca dip so Silently into the sea That they wake not sad Calypso, And the Hero wanders free: He breasts the ocean-furrows, At war with the words of Fate, And the blue tide's low susurrus Comes up to the Ivory Gate. Or, clad in the hide of leopard, 'Mid Ida's freshest dews, Paris, the Teucrian shepherd, His sweet Oenone wooes: On the thought of her coming bridal Unutter'd joy doth wait, While the tune of the false one's idyl Rings soft through the Ivory Gate. Or down from green Helvellyn The roar of streams I hear, And the lazy sail is swelling To the winds of Windermere: That girl with the rustic bodice 'Mid the ferry's laughing freight Is as fair as any goddess Who sweeps through the Ivory Gate. Ah, the vision of dawn is leisure -- But the truth of day is toil; And we pass from dreams of pleasure To the world's unstay'd turmoil. Perchance, beyond the river Which guards the realms of Fate, Our spirits may dwell forever 'Mong dreams of the Ivory Gate. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CONCEIT by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS A GREEK IDYL by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS A SUMMER SONG by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS AD CHLOEN, M.A.; FRESH FROM HER CAMBRIDGE EXAMINATION by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS CHLOE, M.A by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS COMFORT by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS DARWIN by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS HARTLEY COLERIDGE by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS KATE TEMPLE'S SONG by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS MARTIAL IN LONDON by EDWARD JAMES MORTIMER COLLINS |
|