Marsh Hymns by Sidney Lanier

Marsh Hymns by Sidney Lanier Between Dawn and Sunrise. Were silver pink, and had a soul, Which soul were shy, which shyness might A visible influence be, and roll Through heaven and earth — ’twere thou, O light! O rhapsody of the wraith of red, O blush but yet in prophecy, O sun-hint that hath […]

Laus Mariae by Sidney Lanier

Laus Mariae by Sidney Lanier Across the brook of Time man leaping goes On stepping-stones of epochs, that uprise Fixed, memorable, midst broad shallow flows Of neutrals, kill-times, sleeps, indifferencies. So twixt each morn and night rise salient heaps: Some cross with but a zigzag, jaded pace From meal to meal: some with convulsive leaps […]

Laughter In The Senate by Sidney Lanier

Laughter In The Senate by Sidney Lanier In the South lies a lonesome, hungry Land; He huddles his rags with a cripple’s hand; He mutters, prone on the barren sand, What time his heart is breaking. He lifts his bare head from the ground; He listens through the gloom around: The winds have brought him […]

Jones’s Porvate Argyment by Sidney Lanier

Jones’s Porvate Argyment by Sidney Lanier That air same Jones, which lived in Jones, He had this pint about him: He’d swear with a hundred sighs and groans, That farmers MUST stop gittin’ loans, And git along without ’em: That bankers, warehousemen, and sich Was fatt’nin’ on the planter, And Tennessy was rotten-rich A-raisin’ meat […]

In The Foam. by Sidney Lanier

In The Foam. by Sidney Lanier Life swelleth in a whitening wave, And dasheth thee and me apart. I sweep out seaward: — be thou brave. And reach the shore, Sweetheart. Beat back the backward-thrusting sea. Thy weak white arm his blows may thwart, Christ buffet the wild surge for thee Till thou’rt ashore, Sweetheart. […]

From The Flats. by Sidney Lanier

From The Flats. by Sidney Lanier What heartache — ne’er a hill! Inexorable, vapid, vague and chill The drear sand-levels drain my spirit low. With one poor word they tell me all they know; Whereat their stupid tongues, to tease my pain, Do drawl it o’er again and o’er again. They hurt my heart with […]

Control by Sidney Lanier

Control by Sidney Lanier O Hunger, Hunger, I will harness thee And make thee harrow all my spirit’s glebe. Of old the blind bard Herve sang so sweet He made a wolf to plow his land. ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry […]

Barnacles by Sidney Lanier

Barnacles by Sidney Lanier My soul is sailing through the sea, But the Past is heavy and hindereth me. The Past hath crusted cumbrous shells That hold the flesh of cold sea-mells About my soul. The huge waves wash, the high waves roll, Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole And hindereth me from sailing! Old […]

Baby Charley. by Sidney Lanier

Baby Charley. by Sidney Lanier He’s fast asleep. See how, O Wife, Night’s finger on the lip of life Bids whist the tongue, so prattle-rife, Of busy Baby Charley. One arm stretched backward round his head, Five little toes from out the bed Just showing, like five rosebuds red, — So slumbers Baby Charley. Heaven-lights, […]

A Sunrise Song. by Sidney Lanier

A Sunrise Song. by Sidney Lanier Young palmer sun, that to these shining sands Pourest thy pilgrim’s tale, discoursing still Thy silver passages of sacred lands, With news of Sepulchre and Dolorous Hill, Canst thou be he that, yester-sunset warm, Purple with Paynim rage and wrack desire, Dashed ravening out of a dusty lair of […]

A Florida Ghost. by Sidney Lanier

A Florida Ghost. by Sidney Lanier Down mildest shores of milk-white sand, By cape and fair Floridian bay, Twixt billowy pines — a surf asleep on land — And the great Gulf at play, Past far-off palms that filmed to nought, Or in and out the cunning keys That laced the land like fragile patterns […]