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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RIVER DUDDON: SONNET 16. AMERICAN TRADITION, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Such fruitless questions may not long beguile
Last Line: Whate'er they sought, shunned, loved, or deified!
First Line: Such fruitless questions may not long beguile
Last Line: Whate'er they sought, shunned, loved, or deified!
SUCH fruitless questions may not long beguile
Or plague the fancy 'mid the sculptured shows
Conspicuous yet where Oroonoko flows;
'There' would the Indian answer with a smile
Aimed at the White Man's ignorance, the while,
Of the GREAT WATERS telling how they rose,
Covered the plains, and, wandering where they chose,
Mounted through every intricate defile,
Triumphant -- Inundation wide and deep,
O'er which his Fathers urged, to ridge and steep
Else unapproachable, their buoyant way;
And carved, on mural cliff's undreaded side,
Sun, moon, and stars, and beast of chase or prey;
Whate'er they sought, shunned, loved, or deified!
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Other Poems of Interest...
A JEWISH FAMILY; IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ADMONITION [TO A TRAVELLER] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AN APRIL MORNING by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
ANIMAL TRANQUILITY AND DECAY; A SKETCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AT FLORENCE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS; SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
BUONAPARTE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
COMPOSED AT NEIDPATH CASTLE, 1803 by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SIDE NEAR CALAIS [AUGUST 1802] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH