Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DOWN THE BAYOU, by MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND First Line: The cypress swamp around me wraps its spell Last Line: And through the gloom the wild deer shyly gaze. Alternate Author Name(s): Xariffa Subject(s): Swamps; Bogs; Fens; Marshes | ||||||||
THE cypress swamp around me wraps its spell, With hushing sounds in moss-hung branches there, Like congregations rustling down to prayer, While Solitude, like some unsounded bell, Hangs full of secrets that it cannot tell, And leafy litanies on the humid air Intone themselves, and on the tree-trunks bare The scarlet lichen writes her rubrics well. The cypress-knees take on them marvellous shapes Of pygmy nuns, gnomes, goblins, witches, fays, The vigorous vine the withered gum-tree drapes, Across the oozy ground the rabbit plays, The moccasin to jungle depths escapes, And through the gloom the wild deer shyly gaze. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HANDSOME SWAMP by THOMAS LUX BOGLAND; FOR T.P. FLANAGAN by SEAMUS HEANEY HYMNS OF THE MARSHES: MARSH SONG - AT SUNSET by SIDNEY LANIER HYMNS OF THE MARSHES: SUNRISE by SIDNEY LANIER HYMNS OF THE MARSHES: THE MARSHES OF GLYNN by SIDNEY LANIER MARSH MUSIC by KENNETH SLADE ALLING IN A JON BOAT DURING A FLORIDA DAWN by DAVID BOTTOMS A GEORGIA VOLUNTEER by MARY ASHLEY TOWNSEND |
|