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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BELL-BUOY, by RUTH GUTHRIE HARDING
First Line: The bell buoy off manana sings twenty miles to sea,
Last Line: And many miles, inland . . . It reaches me.
Alternate Author Name(s): Burton, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Buoys; Islands; Maine (state); Water
First Line: The bell buoy off manana sings twenty miles to sea,
Last Line: And many miles, inland . . . It reaches me.
Alternate Author Name(s): Burton, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Buoys; Islands; Maine (state); Water
The bell-buoy off Manana sings twenty miles to sea,
And many times the twenty it croons over me:
Light boats at anchor; a long blur for Maine;
Old Monhegan lighthouse, and rocks where I have lain;
Splinter moon to coastward; a lonely pasture-sweep;
Tall pines, and Black Head crying in its sleep;
Fluttering paths that knew me and lent me lyric wings;
Sails that often bore me beyond the ache of things;
Dream-blue that showed me drifters-out-to-Spain;
Ghost-fog; mist-mood; and salt-flecked rain . . .
The bell-buoy off Manana sings twenty miles to sea,
And where I stay its yearning comes flooding in to me:
For once I watched unearthly ships that crossed an August sky,
And there between the heavenly ports the tides ran full and high;
Far-caught within the lift and surge that swept the quiet hill,
I glimpsed their masts rising, their opal sheets a-fill;
A wind from strange, uncharted stars flung wide the eternal foam --
And I, on Monhegan, saw God steer home!
The bell-buoy off Manana sings twenty miles to sea,
And many miles, inland . . . it reaches me.
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