Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MOONRISE FROM IONA, by WILLIAM SHARP


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MOONRISE FROM IONA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here, where in dim forgotten days
Last Line: The bat flies and the owl doth brood.
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): Moon; Sea; Wind; Ocean


Here, where in dim forgotten days
A savage people chanted lays
To long since perished gods, I stand:
The sea breaks in, runs up the sand,
Retreats as with a long-drawn sigh,
Sweeps in again; again leaves dry
The ancient beach, so old and yet
So new that as the strong tides fret
The island barriers in their flow
The ebb-hours of each day can know
A surface change. The day is dead,
The sun is set, and overhead
The white north stars shine keen and bright;
The wind upon the sea is light
And just enough to stir the deep
With phosphorescent gleams and sweep
The spray from salt waves as they rise:
And yonder light -- is't from the skies
Some meteor strange, a burning star --
Or a lamp hung upon a spar
Of vessel undescribed? It gleams
And rises slowly, till it seems
A burning isle, an angel-throne
Reset on earth, a mountain-cone
Of gold new-risen from sea-caves --
Until at last above the waves,
Salt with Atlantic brine, it swims
A silver crescent. Now no hymns
In the wild Runic speech are heard,
No chant, no sacrificial word:
But only moans the weary sea,
And only the cold wind sings free,
And where the Runic temples stood
The bat flies and the owl doth brood.





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