Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RECOMPENSE, by EDWARD BLISS REED



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RECOMPENSE, by                    
First Line: Where the green fir-tips meet the sapphire sky
Last Line: For you can sing.
Subject(s): Love; Sailing & Sailors; Sea Voyages


Where the green fir-tips meet the sapphire sky,
A gull, cloud-white,
Careless of earth, floats insolently by
In the warm light.

Still, imperturbable, it holds a course
To lands unknown,
And scornful of the south wind's gathering force
It sails alone,

Seeing unmoved the noon's exultant glow,
The evening's grief,
The wind-swept waves that crumble into snow
Upon the reef.

The ships becalmed or scudding for the shore
In wind and rain,
Alluring isles—all these it passes o'er
In calm disdain.

Deep in the woods, the sea left far behind,
I listen long,
Searching in ambush, yet in vain, to find
Who sings that song.

I know those notes pure as the brooks that gush
Down Alpine vale;
Enchantress of the woods, the hermit-thrush,
Our nightingale.

Its world a forest bough; here in the shade
It sings unseen
The magic songs a yearning lover made
To charm a queen.

The ocean-wandering gull from all his quest
Can nothing bring.
You have the world within your throbbing breast,
For you can sing.





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