Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MY FATHER, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: My father! In the vague, mysterious past Last Line: Longing (how oft!) with him to be at rest. Subject(s): Fathers | ||||||||
MY father! in the vague, mysterious past, My boyish thoughts have wandered o'er and o'er, To thy lone grave upon a distant shore, The wanderer of the waters, still at last. Never in childhood have I blithely sprung To catch my father's voice, or climb his knee; He was a constant pilgrim of the sea, And died upon it when his boy was young. He perished not in conflict nor in flame, No laurel garland rests upon his tomb; Yet in stern duty's path he met his doom; A life heroic, though unwed to fame! First in vague depths of fancy, scarce-defined, Love limned his wavering likeness on my soul, Till through slow growths it waxed a perfect whole Of clear conceptions, brightening heart and mind. His careless bearing and his manly face, His cordial eye; his firm-knit, stalwart form, Fitted to breast the fight, the wreck, the storm; The sailor's frankness and the soldier's grace. In dreams, in dreams we've mingled, and a swell Of feeling mightier for the eyes' eclipse, The music of a blest Apocalypse, Thrilled through my spirit with its mystic spell: Ah, then! ofttimes a sadder scene will rise, A gallant vessel through the mistbound day, Lifting her spectral spars above the bay, Gloomily swayed against gray glimmering skies. O'er the dim billows thundering, peals a boom Of the deep gun that bursteth as a knell, When the brave tender to the brave farewell -- And strong arms bear a comrade to the tomb. . . . . . The opened sod: a sorrowing band beside -- One rattling roll of musketry, and then, A man no more among his fellow-men, Darkness his chamber, and the earth his bride, My father sleeps in peace; perchance more blest Than some he left to mourn him, and to know The bitter blight of an enduring woe, Longing (how oft!) with him to be at rest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PLAYING DEAD by ANDREW HUDGINS PRAYER BEFORE BED by ANDREW HUDGINS THE FUNERAL SERMON by ANDREW HUDGINS ELEGY FOR MY FATHER, WHO IS NOT DEAD by ANDREW HUDGINS EUROPE AND AMERICA by DAVID IGNATOW EUROPE AND AMERICA by DAVID IGNATOW ESTATE SALE by WAYNE KOESTENBAUM A STORM IN THE DISTANCE (AMONG THE GEORGIAN HILLS) by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE |
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