Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO SIDNEY LANIER (2) by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: THE SAME BLUE-BENDING DOME ENCANOPIES
Last Line: A LINGERING PHANTOM OF THE MORTAL SHADE.
Subject(s): LANIER, SIDNEY (1842-1881);
The same blue-bending dome encanopies
Thine ashes and the spark that kindles mine;
Upon the selfsame bosom we recline,
When with the wind, the wave, land-lessening, dies
And, 'twixt our souls the star-wrought mysteries --
Of Hope the sacred oracles divine --
Steadfast above the vault of darkness shine,
To point the path benighted to the skies.
For there, of dreams unsepulchred and free
"To face the vast sweet Visage, unafraid,"
That erst thy spirit reverenced to see
In Nature's lowliest lineaments portrayed,
Thou keepest watchful memory of me,
A lingering phantom of the mortal shade.



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