OUT of the frozen earth below, Out of the melting of the snow, No flower, but a film, I push to light; No stem, no bud, -- yet I have burst The bars of winter, I am the first, O Sun, to greet thee out of the night! Bare are the branches, cold is the air, Yet it is fire at the heart I bear, I come, a flame that is fed by none: The summer hath blossoms for her delight, Thick and dewy and waxen-white, Thou seest me golden, O golden Sun! Deep in the warm sleep underground Life is still, and the peace profound: Yet a beam that pierced, and a thrill that smote Call'd me and drew me from far away; -- I rose, I came, to the open day I have won, unshelter'd, alone, remote. No bee strays out to greet me at morn, I shall die ere the butterfly is born, I shall hear no note of the nightingale; The swallow will come at the break of green, He will never know that I have been Before him here when the world was pale. They will follow, the rose with the thorny stem, The hyacinth stalk, -- soft airs for them; They shall have strength, I have but love: They shall not be tender as I, -- Yet I fought here first, to bloom, to die, To shine in his face who shines above. O Glory of heaven, O Ruler of morn, O Dream that shap'd me, and I was born In thy likeness, starry, and flower of flame; I lie on the earth, and to thee look up, Into thy image will grow my cup, Till a sunbeam dissolve it into the same. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 20 by JAMES JOYCE WASHING-DAY by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE LOON ON FORRESTER'S POND by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE LAST MAN'S CLUB by JAMES GALVIN ARMAGEDDON by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON AN EXPLANATION by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON TO -, WITH A ROSE by SIDNEY LANIER |