Is this a painting? Are those pictured clouds Which on the sky so movelessly repose? Has some rare artist fashioned forth the shrouds Of yonder vessel? Are these imaged shows Of outline, figure, form, or is there life— Life with a thousand pulses—in the scene We gaze upon, those towering banks between, Ere tossed these billows in tumultuous strife? Billows! there's not a wave! the waters spread One broad, unbroken mirror! all around Is hushed to silence,—silence so profound That a bird's carol, or an arrow sped Into the distance, would, like larum bell, Jar the deep stillness and dissolve the spell! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MIDDLETON PLACE by AMY LOWELL IN SAN MARCO, VENEZIA by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS VALENTINES TO MY MOTHER: 1877 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI YARROW REVISITED by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A RECEIPT TO CURE THE VAPOURS by MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU PSALM 6; AUGUST 13, 1643 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE LAST RAY by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |