DREARY seems the task assigned me, Dull the play; I would fain leave both behind me, Steal away Where no hopes nor cares could find me Night or day. Where the pirate's teak prow grapples With pure sand, Where Hesperidean apples Hem the strand, Where the silver sunlight dapples Lake and land. In some charm'd Saturnian island I would be; Watch, from glens of billowy highland, Creeks of sea; Crush the perfumes there awhile, and Shake the tree. Round the brows of naked Summer, Noon and night, See soft Rest, the rarest comer, Winding bright Garlands that would well become her Blithe delight. See dusk eyes and warm bright faces And sleek limbs Peer from shadowy, leafy spaces, Whence there swims Praise to gods of unknown graces In strange hymns. Eat cool fruits of foreign flavour, Drink from shells Wine of mild, unharmful savour, Wine that smells Like a copse when June winds waver All its bells. Live as live full-feeding cattle; Purge mine ears From the echoing roar and rattle Of the years; Then return to wholesome battle With my peers. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET TO GEORGE SAND: 1. A RECOGNITION by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING HERO AND LEANDER by CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE SONNET: 55 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE GYPSY by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS BODY AND SOUL by AWHAD AD-DIN 'ALI IBN VAHID MUHAMMAD KHAVARANI JESUS - THE CONQUEROR RENOWNED by BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX |