Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET: 7, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET: 7, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I ask not for those thoughts, that sudden leap
Last Line: Hearing the leaves and loving god's dear power.


I ASK not for those thoughts, that sudden leap
From being's sea, like the isle-seeming Kraken,
With whose great rise the ocean all is shaken
And a heart-tremble quivers through the deep;
Give me that growth which some perchance deem sleep,
Wherewith the steadfast coral-stems uprise,
Which, by the toil of gathering energies,
Their upward way into clear sunshine keep,
Until, by Heaven's sweetest influences,
Slowly and slowly spreads a speck of green
Into a pleasant island in the seas,
Where, mid tall palms, the cane-roofed home is seen,
And wearied men shall sit at sunset's hour,
Hearing the leaves and loving God's dear power.





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