Go down, my Soul, unto the river; The day is done, the mountain mute; Thou hast a message to deliver— Why loiterest yet irresolute? See, on the farther bank, The lamp-light winking Across the city, cooling there her flank Like a beast drinking! Down by the mill, the ghostly miller May see a twilit phantom steal And loose an arrow duskier, shriller, Than flies the bat about his wheel. Arrow of secret call! Call to her only Who, at her window on the city wall, Waiteth so lonely. O Mother, in thy royal chamber How barest thou such a son as I? Thou, cased at heart with pearl and amber, With starch and stiff embroidery: I, the brown Ishmaelite— I, whom the starry Summits behold at loose upon the night After my quarry? Small Mother mine, amid thy roses Thy heart sings all the day content: The curtained wall that round thee closes Reminds not of imprisonment. I, on the mountain-tops All the day roaming, Recall thee never till a shadow drops From the rook, homing. That call renews our blood's confusion— Thy babe leaps naked back to thee: Thy soul remembers her seclusion, And mine abhors her liberty. Suppliant I nestle then To thee the stronger, And seek my strength of thee, mother of men, Mere Queen no longer. A moment—and our wiser senses Restore to each the life apart. Yet, as the violet condenses All Venus in her dewy heart, So all the night I hear Thy lids distilling A love that holds in every purple tear Love's planet thrilling. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BARD; A PINDARIC ODE by THOMAS GRAY GOBLIN MARKET by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI IDYLLS OF THE KING: PELLEAS AND ETTARRE by ALFRED TENNYSON WITH COLORS GAY by HOWARD S. ABBOTT BLACK ROSES by WILLIAM HERVEY ALLEN JR. SELF-DECEPTION by MATTHEW ARNOLD |