Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE PRAIRIE, by JOHN MILTON HAY Poet's Biography First Line: The skies are blue above my head Last Line: Rapt in a dream of god. Subject(s): Prairies; Plains | ||||||||
THE skies are blue above my head, The prairie green below, And flickering o'er the tufted grass The shifting shadows go, Vague-sailing, where the feathery clouds Fleck white the tranquil skies, Black javelins darting where aloft The whirring pheasant flies. A glimmering plain in drowsy trance The dim horizon bounds, Where all the air is resonant With sleepy summer sounds, -- The life that sings among the flowers, The lisping of the breeze, The hot cicala's sultry cry, The murmurous dream of bees. The butterfly -- a flying flower -- Wheels swift in flashing rings, And flutters round his quiet kin, With brave flame-mottled wings. The wild Pinks burst in crimson fire, The Phlox' bright clusters shine, And Prairie-Cups are swinging free To spill their airy wine. And lavishly beneath the sun, In liberal splendor rolled, The Fennel fills the dipping plain With floods of flowery gold; And widely weaves the Iron-Weed A woof of purple dyes Where Autumn's royal feet may tread When bankrupt Summer flies. In verdurous tumult far away The prairie-billows gleam, Upon their crests in blessing rests The noontide's gracious beam. Low quivering vapors steaming dim The level splendors break Where languid Lilies deck the rim Of some land-circled lake. Far in the East like low-hung clouds The waving woodlands lie; Far in the West the glowing plain Melts warmly in the sky. No accent wounds the reverent air, No footprint dints the sod, -- Lone in the light the prairie lies, Rapt in a dream of God. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LEFT-HANDED POEM by JAMES GALVIN NO COMPLAINTS; FOR ROBERT GRENIER by ANSELM HOLLO POINT OF ROCKS, TEXAS by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE PRAIRIE HOUSES by BARBARA GUEST AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE PRAIRIES by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT TO MAKE A PRAIRIE by EMILY DICKINSON THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING by WALT WHITMAN SYMPHONY OF THE SOIL by EVA K. ANGLESBURG |
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