Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PELASGIAN AND CYCLOPEAN HILLS, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Ye cliffs of masonry, enormous piles Last Line: And thus these mighty things were made to be. Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord Subject(s): Greece; Greeks | ||||||||
YE cliffs of masonry, enormous piles, Which no rude censure of familiar time Nor record of our puny race defiles, In dateless mystery ye stand sublime, Memorials of an age of which we see Only the types in things that once were ye. Whether ye rest upon some bosky knoll, Your feet by ancient myrtles beautified, Or seem, like fabled dragons, to unroll Your swarthy grandeurs down a bleak hillside, Still on your savage features is a spell That makes ye half divine, ineffable. With joy, upon your height I stand alone, As on a precipice, or lie within Your shadow wide, or leap from stone to stone, Pointing my steps with careful discipline, And think of those grand limbs whose nerve could bear These masses to their places in mid-air; Of Anakim, and Titans, and of days Saturnian, when the spirit of man was knit So close to Nature, that his best essays At Art were but in all to follow it, In all, -- dimension, dignity, degree; And thus these mighty things were made to be. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FLOWER NO MORE THAN ITSELF by LINDA GREGG ALMA IN ALL SEASONS by LINDA GREGG ALMA IN THE DARK by LINDA GREGG ALMA TO HER SISTER by LINDA GREGG ALONE WITH THE GODDESS by LINDA GREGG APHRODITE AND THE NATURE OF ART by LINDA GREGG AS BEING IS ETERNAL by LINDA GREGG COLUMBUS AND THE MAYFLOWER by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES |
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