Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PARABLE, by GEORGE MURRAY (1830-1910)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A PARABLE, by                    
First Line: With limbs at rest on the earth's green breast
Last Line: The liberty they love.
Subject(s): Freedom; Human Behavior; Nature; Liberty; Conduct Of Life; Human Nature


With limbs at rest on the earth's green breast
In a dim and solemn wood,
A proud form lay, on a summer day,
In listless, dreaming mood.

A streamlet slow in the brake below
Went sadly wailing on,
With murmurs wild, like a restless child
That seeketh something gone.

The Dreamer rose from his vain repose
With stern and sullen look,
And scornful ire blazed forth like fire,
As he cursed the simple brook;

"Thy murmurs deep disturb my sleep—
Be still, thou streamlet hoarse!
Small right hast thou of voice, I trow,
To tell thy foolish course."

The waters stirred, for a spirit heard—
The spirit of the streams—
And a voice replied, that softly sighed
Like a voice we hear in dreams.

"If the sleeper fear my voice to hear,
Let him stir each rocky stone,
Whose cruel force impedes my course
And makes my waters moan."

Oft in my heart strange fancies start
And a voice in plaintive strain
Sings, sadly sings, that earthly things
Were shadowed in my brain;

That wealth and birth on God's free earth,
Oft curse the noise and strife
Which poor men make, as they strive to break
Through the rugged ways of life.

The sad voice sings, that ermined kings
Dream on in stately halls,
With curses deep for their broken sleep
When an anguished people calls;

And when sharp stones wake human moans,.
They hear, but never move,
Nor lend men strength to win at length
The liberty they love.





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