The Nympholept

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

There was a boy — not above childish fears —

With steps that faltered now and straining ears,

Timid, irresolute, yet dauntless still,

Who one bright dawn, when each remotest hill

Stood sharp and clear in Heaven’s unclouded blue

And all Earth shimmered with fresh-beaded dew,

Risen in the first beams of the gladdening sun,

Walked up into the mountains. One by one

Each towering trunk beneath his sturdy stride

Fell back, and ever wider and more wide

The boundless prospect opened. Long he strayed,

From dawn till the last trace of slanting shade

Had vanished from the canyons, and, dismayed

At that far length to which his path had led,

He paused — at such a height where overhead

The clouds hung close, the air came thin and chill,

And all was hushed and calm and very still,

Save, from abysmal gorges, where the sound

Of tumbling waters rose, and all around

The pines, by those keen upper currents blown,

Muttered in multitudinous monotone.

Here, with the wind in lovely locks laid bare,

With arms oft raised in dedicative prayer,

Lost in mute rapture and adoring wonder,

He stood, till the far noise of noontide thunder,

Rolled down upon the muffled harmonies

Of wind and waterfall and whispering trees,

Made loneliness more lone. Some Panic fear

Would seize him then, as they who seemed to hear

In Tracian valleys or Thessalian woods

The god’s hallooing wake the leafy solitudes;

I think it was the same: some piercing sense

Of Deity’s pervasive immanence,

The Life that visible Nature doth indwell

Grown great and near and all but palpable . . .

He might not linger, but with winged strides

Like one pursued, fled down the mountain-sides —

Down the long ridge that edged the steep ravine,

By glade and flowery lawn and upland green,

And never paused nor felt assured again

But where the grassy foothills opened. Then,

While shadows lengthened on the plain below

And the sun vanished and the sunset-glow

Looked back upon the world with fervid eye

Through the barred windows of the western sky,

Homeward he fared, while many a look behind

Showed the receding ranges dim-outlined,

Highland and hollow where his path had lain,

Veiled in deep purple of the mountain rain.

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• Portrait of Rage and Age poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Cavanaugh
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• For Fixation Who Loves Me Back poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Cavanaugh
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• A February Night poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Cavanaugh
• A Cat Perched on the Railing poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry by Amy Cavanaugh
• What a Glow Everywhere I see – Aaj Rung Hai poem – with a translation Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Tori Soorat Kay Balihaari poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Sakal Bun poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Rains Have Come poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Persian Poem poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• O Wondrous Ecstatic Eyes – Chashmay Mastay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Nami Danam… poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Mora Jobana (My Youth) poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Mohay Apnay Hi Rung Mein poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Man Kunto Maula poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Main to piya say naina lada aayi ray poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Main to piya say naina lada aayi ray poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
• Khabaram raseed imshab poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry by Amir Khusro
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