Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HUNTER, by JOHN WILSON (1785-1854)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HUNTER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: High life of a hunter! He meets, on the hill
Last Line: And he starts from his dream, at the blast of the horn!
Alternate Author Name(s): North, Christopher
Subject(s): Hunting; Hunters


HIGH life of a hunter! -- he meets, on the hill,
The new-waken'd daylight, so bright and so still;
And feels, as the clouds of the morning unroll,
The silence, the splendour, ennoble his soul!
'T is his on the mountains to stalk like a ghost,
Enshrouded in mist, in which nature is lost;
Till he lifts up his eyes, and flood, valley, and height,
In one moment, all swim in an ocean of light, --
While the sun, like a glorious banner unfurl'd,
Seems to wave o'er a new, more magnificent world!
'T is his, by the mouth of some cavern his seat,
The lightning of heaven to see at his feet, --
While the thunder below him, that growls from the cloud,
To him comes in echo more awfully loud.
When the clear depth of noontide, with glittering motion,
O'erflows the lone glens -- an aerial ocean, --
When the earth and the heavens, in union profound,
Lie blended in beauty that knows not a sound, --
As his eyes in the sunshiny solitude close,
Neath a rock of the desert in dreaming repose, --
He sees in his slumbers such visions of old
As wild Gaelic songs to his infancy told;
O'er the mountains a thousand plumed hunters are borne, --
And he starts from his dream, at the blast of the horn!





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