YON silvery billows breaking on the beach Fall back in foam beneath the star-shine clear, The while my rhymes are murmuring in your ear A restless lore like that the billows teach; For on these sonnet-waves my soul would reach From its own depths, and rest within you, dear, As, through the billowy voices yearning here, Great nature strives to find a human speech. A sonnet is a wave of melody: From heaving waters of the impassion'd soul A billow of tidal music one and whole Flows in the "octave;" then returning free, Its ebbing surges in the "sestet" roll Back to the deeps of Life's tumultuous sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SAVING WAY by HAYDEN CARRUTH MOTHERHOOD by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SAVORING THE PAST by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON EARTH IS ENOUGH by EDWIN MARKHAM UNDER A PATCHED SAIL by MARIANNE MOORE THE RIGHT TO GRIEF by CARL SANDBURG UPLANDS IN MAY by CARL SANDBURG MODERN PARAPHRASE OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNET 29 by GEORGE SANTAYANA |