AMID the loveliest of all lonely vales, Couched in soft silences of mountain calm, And broadly shadowed both by pine and palm, O'er which a tremulous golden vapor sails Forever, though unbreathed on by a breeze Or any wind of heaven, serenely sleeps A lucid fountain, from whose fathom-less deeps Come murmurs stranger than the twilight sea's. That golden vapor, buoyed without a breath, Tints to its own fair bloom the limpid tide, Through which erewhile the solemn vision rose Of a calm face, benignly glorified By all we dream or yearn for of pure rest, Profound, Lethean, passionless repose. Still through the silence mystic murmurs sighed, Fraught with far meanings, vague and unexpressed, Till at the last, upbreathing, weird and near, The voice of that pale phantom thrilled mine ear -- "@3Behold the face, the marvellous face, of Death!@1" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE SUMMER by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE AWAKENING by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON THE LOVE POEM by KAREN SWENSON SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT: SPRING by THOMAS NASHE VENETIAN BLIND by HELEN DARBY BERNING |