Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE STATUE OF THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH. MERAN, by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD Poet's Biography First Line: She is seated by the river Last Line: Where all rivers wend their way. Subject(s): Flowers; Grief; Soul; Tears; Youth; Sorrow; Sadness | ||||||||
She is seated by the river In a robe of spotless white, With her lovely face illumined By the evening's tender light; But her eyes are full of sadness, As if weary of the day, And her gaze is toward the ocean, While the river glides away. At her feet are beds of flowers, Overhead are stately trees Whose protecting branches murmur With the passing of the breeze; Though her hand retains a volume, From its page her glances stray, For her thoughts are with the ocean, As the river flows away. As I view her chastened features, I can feel the rising tears At the thought of all her anguish Through a martyrdom of years; For her joys were writ in water, -- Too impermanent to stay, And were swept toward sorrow's ocean, Ere her youth had passed away. She was captured in the morning Of her childhood's careless age, And imprisoned in a palace Like a linnet in a cage; And its gilded bars confined her To a Court's prescribed display, Which her simple nature hated, As the slow years crept away. Thus her heart grew always sadder, Till her sorrows, one by one, Reached at last their tragic climax In the murder of her son; And this broken-hearted woman, As a madman's victim, lay By Geneva's placid waters, While her life-blood ebbed away! Hence her marble face seems troubled, As she gazes down the stream, Like an angel who hath wakened From a fearful, earth-born dream; She is waiting for the sunset Of her tempest-darkened day, But her soul is with the ocean, Where all rivers wend their way. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS A MAY MONODY by JOHN LAWSON STODDARD |
|