Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. BY THE MERSEY, by EDWARD CARPENTER Poet's Biography First Line: I watched the sunlight on the river mersey Last Line: Far out to the atlantic. Subject(s): Mersey (river), England | ||||||||
I WATCHED the sunlight on the river Merseyall glorious with sailing clouds and shadowsand sailing craft and steamers on the tidea stirring sight! And heard the clang and clamor of Liverpool behind me; And saw in front the crowded ferry-boats crossing, and gulls in clusters swooping down for garbage; [Two steps on the green water with webbed feetand up again, their full beaks raised in air!] And the great Atlantic liner lay at the landing-stage, towering up, a mighty wall of iron, full thirty feet, over the little people who rushed to and fro below, completing the last shipments and farewells. For even now the gong sounded in the ship's interior; and all was readyevery rope in place; The shrouds and stays were taut on mast and spar; Two slender wires, Marconi's, at the stern, ran sloping down from mizen-truck to wheel-house, Ready to catch (far out at sea) a faint thrill from the home-land. The little tug's towing-cable strained too at the monster but still four mighty hawsers held her fast; And still she delayed to move, and still the folk, on ship and shore, with jokes and quips beguiled the hour of parting. Then sudden rang a bugle from the deck. Down came blue peter; and the foghorn sounded. The hawsers fell, and she was free. A moment more, magnificent, she glided down the river. And instantly from all the decks (from some of the portholes too) there burst a flutter of waving hands and scarvesa fringe of white, answered by such another fringe on shore; And instantly I sawwhat I had missed before [Stronger, it seemed, than even cable and hawser, more numerous and tense than shrouds and stays, finer and subtler than Marconi wires,] A thousand invisible threads which bound the ship, and would not be cast off or loosed or snapt, But tugged and strained at living human heartsand strained and tugged and tore Till hearts were sore and broken: Threads of some unseen worldthat stretched and stretched, and floated like fair gossamers in the evening light So fine and strong, so stronger even than steel; And followed lengthening as the great ship fadedlost in the glory of sunset Far out to the Atlantic. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE STUPID OLD BODY by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: AFTER LONG AGES by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 1 by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. A MILITARY BAND by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. AMONG THE FERNS by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. AS A WOMAN OF A MAN by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. AS ONE WHO FROM A HIGH CLIFF by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. AS TO YOU O MOON by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. BY LAKE WACHUSETT by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. BY THE SHORE by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. BY THIS HEART by EDWARD CARPENTER TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. CHILD OF THE LONELY HEART by EDWARD CARPENTER |
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