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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NIGHT ON THE ATOLL, by CLIFFORD GESSLER Poet's Biography First Line: Not like the soft and furry night of the high islands Last Line: No dawn like this awakening. | |||
Not like the soft and furry night of the high islands, darkness comes to the wreath of coral land; not drugged with fragrance of jasmine or gardenia; but clean and salty with sea-wind, cool with ocean: only the light, delicate scent of tournefortia and the tang of fires of husks ... and the darkness falls fresh as morning on the sanded street where bare feet make no sound. It is good, then, to lie on the smooth mat and hear only the trampling of the surf, the wind clashing the tall fronds of palms, and the terns talking to one another in night-language. No sleep of the high islands is like this sleep; no dawn like this awakening. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DARK BAMBOOS by CLIFFORD GESSLER DARK WISDOM by CLIFFORD GESSLER HAUNTED ISLAND by CLIFFORD GESSLER HAWAIIAN SERENADE by CLIFFORD GESSLER NEVERTHELESS by CLIFFORD GESSLER PAPEETE WATERFRONT by CLIFFORD GESSLER SACRED VALLEY by CLIFFORD GESSLER STAR-DANCERS by CLIFFORD GESSLER THE LIFE OF THE LAND IS ESTABLISHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS by CLIFFORD GESSLER THE MISSIONARY'S SON WRITES IN HIS DIARY by CLIFFORD GESSLER |
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