Emily Pauline Johnson (Эмили Полин Джонсон)

The City and the Sea

    I

    To none the city bends a servile knee;
        Purse-proud and scornful, on her heights she stands,
    And at her feet the great white moaning sea
        Shoulders incessantly the grey-gold sands, -
    One the Almighty's child since time began,
        And one the might of Mammon, born of clods;
    For all the city is the work of man,
        But all the sea is God's.

    II

    And she - between the ocean and the town -
        Lies cursed of one and by the other blest:
    Her staring eyes, her long drenched hair, her gown,
        Sea-laved and soiled and dank above her breast.
    She, image of her God since life began,
        She, but the child of Mammon, born of clods,
    Her broken body spoiled and spurned of man,
        But her sweet soul is God's.

Emily Pauline Johnson’s other poems:

  1. Golden – of the Selkirks
  2. The Lifting of the Mist
  3. Wolverine
  4. Autumn’s Orchestra
  5. When George Was King

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

  • Henry Longfellow (Генри Лонгфелло) The City and the Sea (“The panting City cried to the Sea”)




    To the dedicated English version of this website