Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PACIFIC COAST, by CICELY FOX SMITH Poet's Biography First Line: Half across the world to westward there's Last Line: Half across the world from england many and many a year ago. Subject(s): Past; Travel; Journeys; Trips | ||||||||
HALF across the world to westward there's a harbour that I know, Where the ships that load with lumber and the China liners go, -- Where the wind blows cold at sunset off the snow-crowned peaks that gleam Out across the Straits at twilight like the landfall of a dream. There's a sound of foreign voices -- there are wafts of strange perfume -- And a two-stringed fiddle playing somewhere in an upstairs room; There's a rosy tide lap-lapping on an old worm-eaten quay, And a scarlet sunset flaming down behind the China Sea. And I daresay if I went there I should find it all the same, Still the same old sunset glory setting all the skies aflame, Still the smell of burning forests on the quiet evening air, -- Little things my heart remembers nowhere else on earth but there. Still the harbour gulls a-calling, calling all the night and day, And the wind across the water singing just the same old way As it used to in the rigging of a ship I used to know Half across the world from England, many and many a year ago. She is gone beyond my finding -- gone for ever, ship and man, Far beyond that scarlet sunset flaming down behind Japan; But I'll maybe find the dream there that I lost so long ago -- Half across the world to westward in a harbour that I know -- Half across the world from England many and many a year ago. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RICHARD, WHAT'S THAT NOISE? by RICHARD HOWARD LOOKING FOR THE GULF MOTEL by RICHARD BLANCO RIVERS INTO SEAS by LYNDA HULL DESTINATIONS by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE ONE WHO WAS DIFFERENT by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES TO H. B. (WITH A BOOK OF VERSE) by MAURICE BARING A CHANNEL RHYME by CICELY FOX SMITH |
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