Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SUNDAY ON THE HILL-TOP, by WILLIAM CHANNING GANNETT Poet's Biography First Line: Only ten miles from the city Last Line: When it cannot be lifted away? Subject(s): Milton, Massachusetts | ||||||||
ONLY ten miles from the city, -- And how I am lifted away To the peace that passeth knowing, And the light that is not of day! All alone on the hill-top! Nothing but God and me, And the spring-time's resurrection, Far shinings of the sea, The river's laugh in the valley, Hills dreaming of their past; And all things silently opening, Opening into the vast! Eternities past and future Seem clinging to all I see, And things immortal cluster Around my bended knee. That pebble -- is older than Adam! Secrets it hath to tell; These rocks -- they cry out history, Could I but listen well. That pool knows the ocean-feeling Of storm and moon-led tide; The sun finds its east and west therein, And the stars find room to glide. That lichen's crinkled circle Still creeps with the Life Divine, Where the Holy Spirit loitered On its way to this face of mine, -- On its way to the shining faces Where angel-lives are led; And I am the lichen's circle, That creeps with tiny tread. I can hear these violets chorus To the sky's benediction above; And we all are together lying On the bosom of Infinite Love. I -- I am a part of the poem, Of its every sight and sound, For my heart beats inward rhymings To the Sabbath that lies around. Oh, the peace at the heart of Nature! Oh, the light that is not of day! Why seek it afar forever, When it cannot be lifted away? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLUE HILLS OF MILTON by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER THE GHOST OF THE CRAGS by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER A MOTHER'S BREAST by WILLIAM CHANNING GANNETT AUNT PHILLIS'S GUEST; ST HELENA ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, 1863 by WILLIAM CHANNING GANNETT IN TWOS by WILLIAM CHANNING GANNETT MARY'S MANGER-SONG by WILLIAM CHANNING GANNETT THE HILLS OF THE LORD by WILLIAM CHANNING GANNETT THE STREAM OF FAITH by WILLIAM CHANNING GANNETT FROM THE SHORE by CARL SANDBURG EGERTON MANUSCRIPT: 102 by THOMAS WYATT |
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