THE year lies fallen and faded On cliffs by clouds invaded, With tongues of storms upbraided, With wrath of waves bedinned; And inland, wild with warning, As in deaf ears or scorning, The clarion even and morning Rings of the south-west wind. The wild bents wane and wither In blasts whose breath bows hither Their grey-grown heads and thither, Unblest of rain or sun; The pale fierce heavens are crowded Wite shapes like dreams beclouded, As though the old year enshrouded Lay, long ere life were done. Full-charged with old-world wonders, From dusk Tintagel thunders A note that smites and sunders The hard froze-fields of air; A trumpet stormier-sounded Than once from lists rebounded When strong men sense-confounded Fell thick in tourney there. From scarce a duskier dwelling Such notes of wail rose welling Thro' the outer darkness, telling In the awful singer's ears What souls the darkness covers, What love-lost souls of lovers, Whose cry still hangs and hovers In each man's born that hears. For there by Hector's brother And yet some thousand other He that had grief to mother Passed pale from Dante's sight; With one fast linked as fearless, Perchance, there only tearless; Iseult, and Tristram, peerless And perfect queen and knight. A shrill-winged sound comes flying North, as of wild souls crying The cry of things undying, That know what life must be? Or as the old year's heart, stricken Too sore for hope to quicken By thoughts like thorns that thicken, Broke, breaking with the sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SONG OF THE MAD WOMAN'S SON by KAREN SWENSON SONG FIRST BY A SHEPHERD by WILLIAM BLAKE DEDICATIONS AND INSCRIPTIONS: 6. GRUACH by GORDON BOTTOMLEY A HYMN [TO THE NAME AND] IN HONOR OF SAINT TERESA by RICHARD CRASHAW NORTH-WEST PASSAGE: 3. IN PORT by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON GRACE AND STRENGTH by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |