I stood within the old wood,—and all the past Swept through my spirit on wild storm-tossed wings:— The past with all its pain and all its stings And small sour fruit and endless yearning vast. Upon white tides of woe my thought was cast, 'Mid shoals round which the hoarse sea-whisper rings: I was immersed in floods of former things, And my brow ached at strokes of passion's blast. And then I looked, and lo! a flower asleep,— The plant whose plumes I gathered long ago To mix them in a girl's locks soft and deep. Through seasons of fierce sun and months of snow, While I full many a maddening watch did keep, It had done nought but bloom, and fade and blow. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEN KARSHOOK'S WISDOM by ROBERT BROWNING ODE TO TOBACCO by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY APOLLO by THOMAS HOLLEY CHIVERS OVERNIGHT, A ROSE by CAROLINE GILTINAN TO ONE IN PARADISE by EDGAR ALLAN POE IT IS FINISHED' by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI A SONNET by JAMES KENNETH STEPHEN LEE TO THE REAR [MAY 12, 1864] by JOHN REUBEN THOMPSON SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 7. THE SLEEPING BEAUTY by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |