Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BY THE GREY STONE, by WILLIAM SHARP Poet's Biography First Line: It is quiet here: the wet hill-wind's sigh Last Line: Is it love's lordly vow or mine own bitter shame? Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona Subject(s): Birds; Love; Sighs; Silence; Stones; Waiting; Granite; Rocks | ||||||||
It is quiet here: the wet hill-wind's sigh Sobs faintly, as though behind a curtain of thick grass. The vanishing curlew wails a fading cry. I can hear the least soft footfall pass. Is that the shrewmouse I hear, or does the night-moth whirr? I have waited so long, so long, so long, alas! No one. No one. I hear no faintest stir. Yet Love spake once, with lips of flame and eyes of fire, With breath of burning frankincense and myrrh Spake, and the vow was even as Desire . . . Terrible, winged, magnific, crested with flame, So that I bowed before it, mounting gyre upon gyre . . . . I see now a grey bird by the grey stone of no name: It is blind and deaf, and its wings are tipped with mire. Is it Love's lordly vow or mine own bitter shame? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STONE'S SECRET by MARGARET AVISON CONTRA MORTEM: THE STONE by HAYDEN CARRUTH NAMING FOR LOVE by HAYDEN CARRUTH OF THE STONES OF THE PLACE by ROBERT FROST THE EYE IN THE ROCK by JOHN HAINES |
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