Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GREAT HEAD, by JOHN WEISS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GREAT HEAD, by                    
First Line: The ground-pine flung its carpet on the steep
Last Line: The cricket's reverie must share my pipe.
Subject(s): Mount Desert, Maine


THE ground-pine flung its carpet on the steep,
As in and out, along the dinted shore
We crept, the surf-beat secrets to explore,
And map the isle for afterthought to keep.

And when we paused, to brood with talk and pipe
Upon the color of the cliffs and sky,
To watch light glooms of breezes scurry by,
And let each new surprise grow fancy-ripe,

Between the rocks we found our carpet spread;
From the far softness, where the sky and sea
In act of perfect marriage seemed to be,
The afternoon along the deep was led.

Against the seaward reefs, from time to time,
Some wave, more bold and eager than its mates,
runs up, all white with hurrying, and waits,
And clings, as to a rugged verse the rhyme;

And falling back as slowly as a strain
That sings a mood we fear will slip away,
Our eyes, released, toward each other stray,
And climb, and cling, and act the wave again.

In lulls of speech the coast begins to croon:
Our thought and glance the far horizon sip;
And leagues of freshness break upon each lip
In tangled drift of mirth and talk and tune.

Tired lids of distance fall; between, a stripe
Of mornings clear, a memory, remains.
This eve we sit apart; the autumn gains;
The cricket's reverie must share my pipe.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net