Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PICTURE OF A BULL, by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER


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PICTURE OF A BULL, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Once, morn by morn, when snowy mountains flamed
Last Line: And make them hear him still when they had fain forgot.
Alternate Author Name(s): Miller, Joaquin
Variant Title(s): A Bison-king
Subject(s): Animals; Bulls


Once, morn by morn, when snowy mountains flamed
With sudden shafts of light that shot a flood
Into the vale like fiery arrows aim'd
At night from mighty battlements, there stood
Upon a cliff high-limn'd against Mount Hood,
A matchless bull, fresh forth from sable wold,
And standing so seem'd grander 'gainst the wood
Than winged bull that stood with tips of gold
Beside the brazen gates of Nineveh of old.

A time he toss'd the dewy turf, and then
Stretch'd forth his wrinkled neck, and loud
He call'd above the far abodes of men
Until his breath became a curling cloud
And wreathed about his neck a misty shroud.
He then as sudden as he came pass'd on
With lifted head, majestic and most proud,
And lone as night in deepest wood withdrawn
He roamed in silent rage until another dawn.

What drove the hermit from the valley herd,
What cross of love, what cold neglect to kind,
Or scorn of unpretending worth had stirr'd
The stubborn blood and drove him forth to find
A fellowship in mountain cloud and wind,
I ofttime wonder'd much; and ofttime thought
The beast betray'd a royal monarch's mind
To lift above the low herd's common lot
And make them hear him still when they had fain forgot.





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