Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A TRIP TO PARIS AND BELGIUM: 1. LONDON TO FOLKSTONE, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A TRIP TO PARIS AND BELGIUM: 1. LONDON TO FOLKSTONE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A constant keeping-past of shaken trees
Last Line: To where the pale sea brooded murmuring.
Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante
Variant Title(s): A Trip To Paris And Belgium
Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips


A CONSTANT keeping-past of shaken trees,
And a bewildered glitter of loose road;
Banks of bright growth, with single blades atop
Against white sky: and wires--a constant chain--
That seem to draw the clouds along with them
(Things which one stoops against the light to see
Through the low window; shaking by at rest,
Or fierce like water as the swiftness grows);
And, seen through fences or a bridge far off,
Trees that in moving keep their intervals
Still one 'twixt bar and bar; and then at times
Long reaches of green level, where one cow,
Feeding among her fellows that feed on,
Lifts her slow neck, and gazes for the sound.

Fields mown in ridges; and close garden-crops
Of the earth's increase; and a constant sky
Still with clear trees that let you see the wind;
And snatches of the engine-smoke, by fits
Tossed to the wind against the landscape, where
Rooks stooping heave their wings upon the day.

Brick walls we pass between, passed so at once
That for the suddenness I cannot know
Of what, or where begun, or where at end.
Sometimes a station in grey quiet; whence,
With a short gathered champing of pent sound,
We are let out upon the air again.
Pauses of water soon, at intervals,
That has the sky in it;--the reflexes
O' the trees move towards the bank as we go by,
Leaving the water's surface plain. I now
Lie back and close my eyes a space; for they
Smart from the open forwardness of thought
Fronting the wind.

I did not scribble more,
Be certain, after this; but yawned and read,
And nearly dozed a little, I believe;
Till, stretching up against the carriage-back,
I was roused altogether, and looked out
To where the pale sea brooded murmuring.





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