Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LAST SONG OF SAPPHO, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LAST SONG OF SAPPHO, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sound on, thou dark unslumbering sea
Last Line: Alone I come -- oh! Give me peace, dark sea!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Sappho (610-580 B.c.)


SOUND on, thou dark, unslumbering sea!
My dirge is in thy moan;
My spirit finds response in thee
To its own ceaseless cry -- "Alone, alone!"

Yet send me back one other word,
Ye tones that never cease!
Oh! let your secret caves be stirred,
And say, dark waters! will ye give me peace?

Away! my weary soul hath sought
In vain one echoing sigh,
One answer to consuming thought
In human hearts -- and will the wave reply?

Sound on, thou dark, unslumbering sea!
Sound in thy scorn and pride!
I ask not, alien world! from thee
What my own kindred earth hath still denied.

And yet I loved that earth so well,
With all its lovely things!
Was it for this the death-wind fell
On my rich lyre, and quenched its living strings?

Let them lie silent at my feet!
Since, broken even as they,
The heart whose music made them sweet
Hath poured on desert sands its wealth away.

Yet glory's light hath touched my name,
The laurel-wreath is mine --
With a lone heart, a weary frame --
O restless deep! I come to make them thine!

Give to that crown, that burning crown,
Place in thy darkest hold!
Bury my anguish, my renown,
With hidden wrecks, lost gems, and wasted gold.

Thou sea-bird on the billow's crest!
Thou hast thy love, thy home;
They wait thee in the quiet nest,
And I, th' unsought, unwatched-for -- I too come!

I, with this winged nature fraught,
These visions wildly free,
This boundless love, this fiery thought --
Alone I come -- oh! give me peace, dark sea!





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