Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A RETORT, by EMILY LAWLESS Poet's Biography First Line: Not hers your vast imperial mart Last Line: On a still shore. | ||||||||
Not hers your vast Imperial mart, Where myriad hopes on fears are hurled; Where furious rivals meet and part To woo a world. Not hers your vast Imperial town, Your mighty mammoth piles of grain, Your loaded vessels sweeping down To glut the main. Unused, unseen, her rivers flow From mountain tarn to ocean tide; Wide vacant leagues the sunbeams show, The rain-clouds hide. You swept them vacant! Your decree Bid all her budding commerce cease; You drove her from your subject sea To starve in peace! Well, be it peace! Resigned they flow, No laden fleet adown them glides, But wheeling salmon sometimes show Their silvered sides. And sometimes through the long still day The breeding herons slowly rise, Lifting grey tranquil wings away To tranquil skies. Stud all your shores with prosperous towns! Blacken your hill-sides, mile on mile! Redden with bricks your patient downs! And proudly smile! A day will come before you guess, A day when men with clearer light, Will rue that deed beyond redress; Will loathe that sight. And, loathing, fly the hateful place, And, shuddering, quit the hideous thing For where unblackened rivers race And skylarks sing. For where, remote from smoke and noise, Old Leisure sits knee-deep in grass; Where simple days bring simple joys, And lovers pass. I see her in those coming days, Still young, still gay; her unbound hair Crowned with a crown of starlike rays, Serenely fair I see an envied haunt of peace, Calm and untouched, remote from roar; Where wearied men may from their burdens cease On a still shore. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FONTENOY, 1745: 2. AFTER THE BATTLE, EARLY DAWN, CLARE COAST by EMILY LAWLESS AN EXILE'S MOTHER by EMILY LAWLESS FROM THE BURREN by EMILY LAWLESS THE STRANGER'S GRAVE by EMILY LAWLESS AFTER AUGHRIM by EMILY LAWLESS DIRGE OF THE MUNSTER FOREST by EMILY LAWLESS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALFRED MOIR by EDGAR LEE MASTERS ON GEORGE HERBERT'S BOOK, THE TEMPLE, SENT TO A GENTLEWOMAN by RICHARD CRASHAW |
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