Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO THE SETTING SUN, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907) Poet's Biography First Line: Stay, o sweet day, nor fleet so fast away Last Line: Keeping sweet daylight, in each other's eyes. Subject(s): Time | ||||||||
STAY, O sweet day, nor fleet so fast away For now it is that life revives again, As the red tyrant sinks beneath the hill; And now soft dews refresh the arid plain; And now the fair bird's voice begins to thrill; With hidden dolours making sweet her strain And wakes the woods that all day were so still. Stay, O sweet day, nor fleet so fast away; For now the rose and all fair flowers that blow Give out sweet odours to the perfumed air, And the white palace marbles blush and glow, And the low, ivy-hidden cot shows fair. Why are time's feet so swift, and ours so slow? Haste, laggard! night will fall ere you are there. Stay, O sweet day, nor fleet so fast away; Soon the pale full-faced moon will slowly climb Up the steep sky and quench the star of love. Moonlight is fair, but fairer far the time When through the leaves the dying shafts above Slope, and the minster sounds its curfew chime, And the long shadows lengthen through the grove. Stay, O sweet day, nor fleet so fast away; For, hark! the chime throbs from the darkling tower; Soon for the last time shall my love be here: Fair day, renew thy rays for one brief hour. O sweet day, tarry for us, tarry near; To-morrow, love and time will lose their power, And sighs be mine, and the unbidden tear. Stay, O sweet day, nor fleet so fast away. But, ah! thou may'st not; in the far-off west Impatient lovers weary till you rise; Or may be caring naught thou traversest The plains betwixt thee and thy final skies: Go, then; though darkness come, we shall be blest, Keeping sweet daylight, in each other's eyes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ELEVEN EYES: FINAL SECTION by LYN HEJINIAN THE FATALIST: COME OCTOBER by LYN HEJINIAN THE FATALIST: HOME by LYN HEJINIAN THE FATALIST: TIME IS FILLED by LYN HEJINIAN SLOWLY: I FREQUENTLY SLOWLY WISH by LYN HEJINIAN ALL THE DIFFICULT HOURS AND MINUTES by JANE HIRSHFIELD A DAY IS VAST by JANE HIRSHFIELD FROM THIS HEIGHT by TONY HOAGLAND A CAROL by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907) |
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