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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HARBOR, by JOSEPHINE PINCKNEY
First Line: Boatlights are clustered on the smooth blackness
Last Line: Refugees from too great beauty.
Subject(s): Harbors
First Line: Boatlights are clustered on the smooth blackness
Last Line: Refugees from too great beauty.
Subject(s): Harbors
Boatlights are clustered on the smooth blackness
Like water-lilies,
With long, gold stems of reflections;
Stillness hangs
Like a shell
Over dark water long enchanted,
Except where the ships of war stand off the fort
Invisible
And sound faint broken warnings.
The Captain's barge leaves for town,
And the rat-tat-tat of the motor floats over
As though a gnome drummer rolled his mimic drum.
Then four bells, sweet, and slow and far,
And two bugle notes blown long and low.
An opening marigold
The moon comes up,
Soars changing to pale, lustrous gold
And nightlong pours a cool, blue light
On the June sultriness.
Suddenly the crowds
Drifting along the water front
Can bear it no longer,
They stir and turn homeward, clinging together,
Refugees from too great beauty.
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