Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LAKE, by ALPHONSE MARIE LOUIS DE PRAT LAMARTINE Poet's Biography First Line: Must we for ever to some distant clime Last Line: "here, two fond lovers strayed." Subject(s): Lakes; Time; Pools; Ponds | ||||||||
Must we for ever to some distant clime Drift through the night despairingly away? And can we never on the sea of Time Cast anchor for a day? O Lake! a year hath passed with all its pain, And, by the waves she hoped once more to see, Here, on this stone, I seat myself again, But ask not where is she? Thus didst thou murmur in thy rocky caves, On their torn flanks thy waters thus did beat, While the gay Zephyr flung thy foaming waves Around her fairy feet. One summer eve we floated from thy shores, Dost thou recall it? Not a sound was heard, Save when the measured cadence of our oars The dreamy silence stirred. Then tones more sweet than earth shall ever hear, Sweet tones that never will be heard again, Woke slumbering echoes round the haunted mere That listened to the strain, "O blissful Time! suspend thy flight, Dear hours, prolong your stay, And let us taste the fleet delight Of this enchanting day. Alas! too many filled with woe Thy tardiness regret; For these, outstrip the winds, but oh! Earth's happy ones forget! I ask some moments more, in vain Time's wings more swiftly fly: 'O rapturous eve,' I sigh, 'remain,' Lo! night is in the sky. Come, let us lovethe minutes flee Love may not long abide; Time's river knows no ebb, and we Drift onward with the tide." O jealous Time, say, why must hours like these, That thrill the heart with youthful passion's glow, Take wing more quickly on the summer breeze Than dismal hours of woe? Can we not fix one joyous moment's trace, Must it from earth be cancelled evermore! Shall Time each record of our love efface, Refusing to restore? O grand Eternity! O solemn Past! Ye, whose abyss engulfs our little day, Speak, will ye grant again the bliss, at last, That once ye snatched away? O Lake beloved, mute caves, and forest green, Whose beauty Time ne'er suffers to depart, Keep fresh the memory of that evening scene, Fair Nature, in thy heart! Keep it, dear Lake, in sunshine and in storm, In all the varied aspects of thy shore In these dark pines, and rocks of savage form That round thy waters soar. Still let it live in every breeze that sighs, In each soft echo that the hills repeat, In every star that on thy bosom lies With lustre, calm and sweet. Let night-winds murmur to the reeds her name, Let the faint fragrance that embalms each glade, Let every sound and sight and scent proclaim, "Here, two fond lovers strayed." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A MAN GETS OFF WORK EARLY by THOMAS LUX THE FRIARY AT BLOSSOM, PROLOGUE & INSTRUCTIONS by NORMAN DUBIE SONGS FOR TWO SEASONS: 2. RED POND by CAROL FROST MEMORY AND HOPE by ALPHONSE MARIE LOUIS DE PRAT LAMARTINE THE BUTTERFLY by ALPHONSE MARIE LOUIS DE PRAT LAMARTINE THE FOUNTAIN IN THE FOREST by ALPHONSE MARIE LOUIS DE PRAT LAMARTINE |
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