Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ADDRESS TO A WILD DEER, by JOHN WILSON (1785-1854)



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ADDRESS TO A WILD DEER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Magnificent creature! So stately and bright!
Last Line: As nature's fierce son in the wilderness dies.
Alternate Author Name(s): North, Christopher
Subject(s): Deer


MAGNIFICENT creature! so stately and bright!
In the pride of thy spirit pursuing thy flight;
For what hath the child of the desert to dread,
Wafting up his own mountains that far beaming head;
Or borne like a whirlwind down on the vale! --
Hail! king of the wild and the beautifu! -- hail!
Hail! idol divine! -- whom nature hath borne
O'er a hundred hill-tops since the mists of the morn,
Whom the pilgrim lone wandering on mountain and moor,
As the vision glides by him, may blameless adore;
For the joy of the happy, the strength of the free,
Are spread in a garment of glory o'er thee,
Up! up to you cliff! like a king to his throne!
O'er the black silent forest piled lofty and lone --
A throne which the eagle is glad to resign
Unto footsteps so fleet and so fearless as thine.
There the bright heather springs up in love of thy breast,
Lo! the clouds in the depths of the sky are at rest;
And the race of the wild winds is o'er on the hill!
In the hush of the mountains, ye antlers, lie still! --
Though your branches now toss in the storm of delight
Like the arms of the pine on you shelterless height,
One moment -- thou bright apparition -- delay!
Then melt o'er the crags, like the sun from the day.
His voyage is o'er -- As if struck by a spell,
He motionless stands in the hush of the dell;
There softly and slowly sinks down on his breast,
In the midst of his pastime enamour'd of rest.
A stream in a clear pool that endeth its race --
A dancing ray chain'd to one sunshiny place --
A cloud by the winds to calm solitude driven --
A hurricane dead in the silence of heaven.
Fit couch of repose for a pilgrim like thee:
Magnificent prison enclosing the free;
With rock wall-encircled, with precipice crown'd --
Which, awoke by the sun, thou canst clear at a bound.
Mid the fern and the heather kind nature doth keep
One bright spot of green for her favourite's sleep;
And close to that covert, as clear to the skies
When their blue depths are cloudless, a little lake lies,
Where the creature at rest can his image behold,
Looking up through the radiance, as bright and as bold.
Yes: fierce looks thy nature, e'en hush'd in repose --
In the depths of thy desert regardless of foes,
Thy bold antlers call on the hunter afar,
With a haughty defiance to come to the war.
No outrage is war to a creature like thee;
The buglehorn fills thy wild spirit with glee,
As thou bearest thy neck on the wings of the wind,
And the laggardly gaze-hound is toiling behind.
In the beams of thy forehead, that glitter with death,
In feet that draw power from the touch of the heath, --
In the wide raging torrent that lends thee its roar, --
In the cliff that once trod must be trodden no more, --
Thy trust -- mid the dangers that threaten thy reign:
-- But what if the stag on the mountain be slain?
On the brink of the rock -- lo! he standeth at bay,
Like a victor that falls at the close of the day --
While the hunter and hound in their terror retreat
From the death that is spurn'd from his furious feet;
And his last cry of anger comes back from the skies,
As nature's fierce son in the wilderness dies.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net