Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BRUGES: QUAI DES AUGUSTINS; AFTER VAN DER VEER, by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL Poet's Biography First Line: Within the sad, deserted street Last Line: To silence and the waning day. Subject(s): Bruges, Belgium; Streets; Avenues | ||||||||
WITHIN the sad, deserted street, We stand a little space to gaze, Beneath the high-walled garden's shade, Amid the twilight's growing haze The still depths of the dark canal, Between gray walls of ancient stone, Stir not to any wind that blows, And seem so silent, so alone, We wonder at the lazy swans That o'er the water dare to glide, And marvel at the lads who cast Their pebbles from the bridge's side. Quaint houses bound the darksome wave, Time-tinted, yellow, umber, gray, With gaping gargoyles overhead, And underneath sweet gardens gay, With ivy, flung like cloaks of green Upon the worn and mottled wall; Forgotten centuries ago By burgher dames at even-fall. Across the narrow space of flowers, A maid in scarlet petticoat Comes with the shining pail of brass, And bends above the moveless moat; And breaks her image with the pail, And scares the swans, and trips away, And leaves the stern, gray, sombre street To silence and the waning day. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHINATOWN BLUES by CLARENCE MAJOR KEEP DRIVING by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE DEEP IN EUROPE by TOMAS TRANSTROMER IN THE STREETS by LOUIS UNTERMEYER EVENING SONG ON OUR STREET by DAVID WAGONER ANGLOSAXON STREET by EARL (EARLE) BIRNEY SONNET: 24. THE STREET by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL A STEP AWAY FROM THEM by FRANK O'HARA (1926-1966) A DECANTER OF MADEIRA, AGED 86, TO GEORGE BANCROFT, AGED 86 by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL HOW THE CUMBERLAND WENT DOWN [MARCH 8, 1862] by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL |
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