Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TIDEWATER, by BEATRICE WITTE RAVENEL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TIDEWATER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Were the burned sand of aeaea
Last Line: Of carolina.
Variant Title(s): Coasts
Subject(s): Seashore; Beach; Coast; Shore


Were the burned sand of AEaea,
Circe's, -- stranger than yours,
Wadmalah?
Myrtles squat Beastlike, each crouching inland,
Sand heaped like a spell on their faces.

Is Samos more white
Than the beaches of Kiawah?
Are the mighty spirits of Rhodes more terribly splendid
Than ghosts of Indian warriors?
Their spears fiercer
Than points of palmetto and yucca
Crossed like a sword dance
On Edisto?
Their towers more arrogant
Than the belfries of thick white bell-flowers
Carved in the air?

Is Marathon richlier echoed
With voices of youthful heroes
Than the swamps of Santee?
When the bloom runs over the moss
In a soft gray glory of tarnished silver, of shadowy pearl,
Riders furrow the night.
Marion, Marion's men,
Pass in a voiceless tumult,
Pass like the smoke from a torch,
With dark unextinguished eyes.

These are the coasts, the haunted coasts and the islands
Of Carolina.





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