Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


HER BOWER, FR. MARDI by HERMAN MELVILLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: HER BOWER IS NOT OF THE VINE
Last Line: THE THRUSH, THE DOE, AND THE HARE!

Her bower is not of the vine,
But the wild, wild eglantine!
Not climbing a moldering arch,
But upheld by the fir-green larch.
Old ruins she flies:
To new valleys she hies; --
Not the hoar, moss-wood,
Ivied trees each a rood --
Not in Maramma she dwells,
Hollow with hermit cells.
'Tis a new, new isle!
An infant's its smile,
Soft-rocked by the sea.
Its bloom all in bud;
No tide at its flood,
In that fresh-born sea!

Spring! Spring where she dwells,
In her sycamore dells,
Where Mardi is young and new:
Its verdure all eyes with dew.
There, there! in the bright, balmy morns,
The young deer sprout their horns,
Deep-tangled in new-branching groves,
Where the Red-Rover Robin roves, --

Stooping his crest,
To his molting breast --
Rekindling the flambeau there!
Spring! Spring! where she dwells,
In her sycamore dells: --
Where, fulfilling their fates,
All creatures seek mates --
The thrush, the doe, and the hare!



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