Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A LETTER FROM NEWPORT, by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS Poet's Biography First Line: The crimson leafage fires the lawn Last Line: For thy sad heart can find a home. Alternate Author Name(s): Myers, Frederic | ||||||||
THE crimson leafage fires the lawn, The pil'd hydrangeas blazing glow; How blue the vault of breezy dawn Illumes the Atlantic's crested snow! 'Twixt sea and sands how fair to ride Through whispering airs a starlit way, And watch those flashing towers divide Heaven's darkness from the darkling bay! Ah, friend, how vain their pedant's part, Their hurrying toils how idly spent, How have they wrong'd the gentler heart Which thrills the awakening continent, Who have not learnt on this bright shore What sweetness issues from the strong, Where flowerless forest, cataract-roar, Have found a blossom and a song! Ah, what imperial force of fate Links our one race in high emprize! Nor aught henceforth can separate Those glories mingling as they rise; For one in heart, as one in speech, At last have Child and Mother grown, -- Fair Figures! honoring each in each A beauty kindred with her own. Through English eyes more calmly soft Looks from gray deeps the appealing charm; Reddens on English cheeks more oft The rose of innocent alarm; -- Our old-world heart more gravely feels, Has learnt more force, more self-control; For us through sterner music peals The full accord of soul and soul. But ah, the life, the smile untaught, The floating presence feathery-fair! The eyes and aspect that have caught The brilliance of Columbian air! No oriole through the forest flits More sheeny-plum'd, more gay and free; On no nymph's marble forehead sits Proudlier a glad virginity. So once the Egyptian, gravely bold, Wander'd the Ionian folk among. Heard from their high Letoon roll'd That song the Delian maidens sung; Danced in his eyes the dazzling gold, For with his voice the tears had sprung, -- "They die not, these! they wax not old, They are ever-living, ever-young!" Spread then, great land! thine arms afar, Thy golden harvest westward roll; Banner with banner, star with star, Ally the tropics and the pole; -- There glows no gem than these more bright From ice to fire, from sea to sea; Blossoms no fairer flower to light Through all thine endless empery. And thou come hither, friend! thou too Their kingdom enter as a boy; Fed with their glorious youth renew Thy dimm'd prerogative of joy: -- Come with small question, little thought, Through thy worn veins what pulse shall flow, With what regrets, what fancies fraught, Shall silver-footed summer go: -- If round one fairest face shall meet Those many dreams of many fair, And wandering homage seek the feet Of one sweet queen, and linger there; Or if strange winds betwixt be driven, Unvoyageable oceans foam, Nor this new earth, this airy heaven, For thy sad heart can find a home. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SAINT PAUL: 1 by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS SIMMENTHAL by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A CHILD OF THE AGE by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A COSMIC HISTORY by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A COSMIC OUTLOOK by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A CRY FROM THE STALLS by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A LAST APPEAL by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A PRAYER by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A SONG by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS A WHITE WITCH by FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY MYERS |
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