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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HARP, by RICHARD DEHMEL First Line: Unquiet stand the pines in lofty rows Last Line: O world! Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres | |||
Unquiet stand the pines in lofty rows, The clouds roll on from east to west, unseeking; Silent and hurried, nest-ward fly the crows, Hollow from dusky boughs the wood is speaking, And hollow sounds my step. Here have I walked before this self-same hill, Before I knew the storm of such desire, You called primeval-voiced across the still, My arms stretched toward the infinite, reached higher, O giant stems around! Through the wide-stretching space gray trunks are seen, Hardly a stirring, hour on changing hour, And sweeping through their coronets of green, Presses, restrained, the urge of sonorous power, As then. And like an earth-god's lifted hand one seems, Split to the shaping of five mighty fingers, Gold to its spreading brown-gold roots it gleams, High over all the rigid stems it lingers, The old, the lonely. Through those five fingers whirls a stubborn fight, Fingers that strain and clutch in high air swinging, And through the tops convulsed on windy height, They seem to tear with fervor at the ringing Notes of a haunted harp. And from the harp there sounds a heavenly tone, A song spreads on, from east to west, unseeking, The song that since my boyhood I have known, Hollow from dusky boughs the wood is speaking, Come, tempest, grant my prayer! Long have I yearned another hand to take, A hand that mated to my heart's desire, And strained each finger till it seemed to break, For none could clasp that searching hand entire! Then to a fist I clenched it! For I have battled, fervent, unafraid, 'Twixt God and beast, weaponed with every yearning, And now I stand and view the journey made, And in my soul one fervour still is burning Toward all the world. Come, storm of storms, shake now these rigid rows! Primeval tumult, let me too be blown! In huddled panic, nest-ward fly the crows. Give me the strength to be alone, O world! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GHOSTS LISTEN TO ORPHEUS SING by GREGORY ORR TO AN AEOLIAN HARP by SARA TEASDALE THE AEOLIAN HARP by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE MASTER-PLAYER by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE HARP by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE AEOLIAN HARP; AT THE SURF INN by HERMAN MELVILLE THAT HARP YOU PLAY SO WELL by MARIANNE MOORE RUMORS FROM AN AEOLIAN HARP by HENRY DAVID THOREAU AEOLIAN HARP (1) by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM BEFORE THE STORM by RICHARD DEHMEL |
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