Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OVID IN PONTUS, by BRYAN WALLER PROCTER Poet's Biography First Line: Hard by the banished euxine (a black doom!) Last Line: Have sought to find it on that desert beach. Alternate Author Name(s): Cornwall, Barry; Proctor, Bryan Waller Subject(s): Black Sea; Russia; Soviet Union; Russians | ||||||||
HARD by the banished Euxine (a black doom!) Haunted the poet Ovid. He was sent, With love upon his soul, to banishment, And sank, an amorous meteor, quenched in gloom. Bright tears were lost when Ovid died. A man Who loved and mourned so sweetly well might win Melodious sorrow for his unknown sin. All ages wept his fate: Politian Developed his brave wrath in ten-foot verse, And many a nameless scribbler rhymed a curse: Only Augustus, in his timorous pride, Exiled the poet from his beauty's side, Sending him, fettered, to the banished sea. But who may chain the poet's spirit free? He thought and murmured -- oh! and late and long Bestowed the music of his soul in song; Bequeathed to every wind that kissed that shore, Sighs for lost Rome, which he must see no more; Regrets, repinings (of all hope bereft), And tears for Caesar's daughter, loved and left! And so it was he wept long years away By savage waters; so did he rehearse, Throughout the paleness of the winter's day, The many sorrows of his love-crowned verse, Until, in the end, he died. His grave is lost; Somewhere it lies beyond all guess, all reach, Though bands of wandering lovers, passion-crossed, Have sought to find it on that desert beach. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 259 by LYN HEJINIAN A FOREIGN COUNTRY by JOSEPHINE MILES THE DIAMOND PERSONA by NORMAN DUBIE IN MEMORIAM: 1933 (7. RUSSIA: ANNO 1905) by CHARLES REZNIKOFF TAKE A LETTER TO DMITRI SHOSTAKOVITCH by CARL SANDBURG READING THE RUSSIANS by RUTH STONE THE SOVIET CIRCUS VISITS HAVANA, 1969 by VIRGIL SUAREZ A PROBLEM IN AESTHETICS by KAREN SWENSON A PETITION TO TIME by BRYAN WALLER PROCTER |
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