Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HIGH TIDE ON THE VICTORIA EMBANKMENT: 5. THE DARK VISION, by MARGARET LOUISA WOODS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HIGH TIDE ON THE VICTORIA EMBANKMENT: 5. THE DARK VISION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: But the sea is immortal, he knows nothing, he cannot / divine
Last Line: First he found thee and crowned thee in waste dominions a queen.
Alternate Author Name(s): Woods, Mrs. Margaret Louisa Bradley
Subject(s): Mothers; Seashore; Ships & Shipping; Victoria, Queen Of England (1819-1901); Beach; Coast; Shore


But the Sea is immortal, he knows nothing, he cannot divine
Anything of Age, in his great heart he beholds thee
Young as his great heart,
He beholds thee ever immortally throned, a shining goddess.

What shall we affirm? Isis, art thou, of the secret countenance
Impenetrably veiled, thundering darkly stupendous oracles.
Yet when the breath of the Sea,
When the swift water sweeps up the silver arc
To thy glooming towers, I with reluctant look have beheld
A vision, a dream of thee, Mother. False be the vision!
Lying the dream! Unlifted the solemn veil!

I saw in her palace halls enthroned, yet from divinity
Fallen already, a goddess, a mighty bulk
Bowed in the golden chair.
Deaf are her ears to the voices afar, to the tide's admonition,
Dim her eyes, no longer with eagle glance
Sweeping from her high seat over the spaces of Earth.

With drooped eyelids she leans, passionate, eager, absorbed,
Over an interminable game, clutching at counters.
For these all she stakes, she gambles all, a gamester
Debile, sinister, ridiculous,
Monstrous Mother, pushing on the board with palsied fingers
All the heritage, the honour, the goodly estate,
The wealth, the achievement, the toil, the tears, the blood of her children.

Darkly behind her in shadow, a shadow looming gigantic
Watches, a Titan awaits, eager, superb,
The last, the impotent hour.

But she regards not. Away
The dream!—with its long low sound as of desperate sorrow,
Of sea winds that wail, with a saltness of tears
Blown along her pale coasts!—Lady, the Sea salutes thee
Now, as through all years,
Since naked and nameless among the blanching osiers,
First he found thee and crowned thee in waste dominions a queen.





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