Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BITTER WATERS, by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BITTER WATERS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In a dense wood, a drear wood
Last Line: On the trees that are there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter


In a dense wood, a drear wood,
Dark water is flowing;
Deep, deep, beyond sounding,
A flood ever flowing.

There harbours no wild bird,
No wanderer stays there;
Wreathed in mist, sheds pale Ishtar
Her sorrowful rays there.

Take thy net; cast thy line;
Manna sweet be thy baiting;
Time's desolate ages
Shall still find thee waiting

For quick fish to rise there,
Or butterfly wooing,
Or flower's honeyed beauty,
Or wood-pigeon cooing.

Inland wellsprings are sweet;
But to lips, parched and dry,
Salt, salt is the savour
Of these; faint their sigh.

Bitter Babylon's waters.
Zion, distant and fair.
We hanged up our harps
On the trees that are there.





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