On a Primitive Canoe

Here, passing lonely down this quiet lane,
Before a mud-splashed window long I pause
To gaze and gaze, while through my active brain
Still thoughts are stirred to wakefulness; because
Long, long ago in a dim unknown land,
A massive forest-tree, ax-felled, adze-hewn,
Was deftly done by cunning mortal hand
Into a symbol of the tender moon.
Why does it thrill more than the handsome boat
That bore me o’er the wild Atlantic ways,
And fill me with rare sense of things remote
From this harsh land of fretful nights and days?
I cannot answer but, whate’er it be,
An old wine has intoxicated me.

(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

The Boat I must launch out my boat. The languid hours pass by on the Shore – Alas for me! The spring […]...

The Clock's Clear Voice Into The Clearer Air THE cock’s clear voice into the clearer air Where westward far I roam, Mounts with a thrill of hope, Falls […]...

Primitive I have heard about the civilized, The marriages run on talk, elegant and honest, rational. But you and I are […]...

Roundel She’s passing fair; but so demure is she, So quiet is her gown, so smooth her hair, That few there […]...

The Little Girl Found All the night in woe, Lyca’s parents go: Over vallies deep. While the desarts weep. Tired and woe-begone. Hoarse with […]...

To Laura (Mystery Of Reminiscence) Who and what gave to me the wish to woo thee Still, lip to lip, to cling for aye unto […]...

Holy Thursday (Experience) Is this a holy thing to see. In a rich and fruitful land. Babes reduced to misery. Fed with cold […]...

The Mole Said he: “I’ll dive deep in the Past, And write a book of direful days When summer skies were overcast […]...

Pictured My work, I’m very careful about it, and I love it. But today I’m discouraged by how slowly it’s going. […]...

Sir Humphrey Gilbert Southward with fleet of ice Sailed the corsair Death; Wild and gast blew the blast, And the east-wind was his […]...

The Owl And The Pussy-Cat I The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and […]...

Wild May Aleta mentions in her tender letters, Among a chain of quaint and touching things, That you are feeble, weighted down […]...

The Sailor The boat of the boatman Madhu is moored at the wharf of Rajgunj. It is uselessly laden with jute, and […]...

To Ireland In The Coming Times Know, that I would accounted be True brother of a company That sang, to sweeten Ireland’s wrong, Ballad and story, […]...

The Two Trees Beloved, gaze in thine own heart, The holy tree is growing there; From joy the holy branches start, And all […]...

A Man Young And Old: I. First Love Though nurtured like the sailing moon In beauty’s murderous brood, She walked awhile and blushed awhile And on my pathway […]...

Leaves The leaves are falling one and one, Each like a life to me, As over-soonly in the sun They spiral […]...

Lover's Gifts VIII: There Is Room for You There is room for you. You are alone with your few sheaves of rice. My boat is crowded, it is […]...

THE SPIRIT'S SALUTE THE hero’s noble shade stands high On yonder turret grey; And as the ship is sailing by, He speeds it […]...

Ione, Dead the Long Year Empty are the ways, Empty are the ways of this land And the flowers Bend over with heavy heads. They […]...

Divine Visitation THE HEAVENS lay hold on us: the starry rays Fondle with flickering fingers brow and eyes: A new enchantment lights […]...

Hayeswater A region desolate and wild. Black, chafing water: and afloat, And lonely as a truant child In a waste wood, […]...

Shut Not Your Doors, &c SHUT not your doors to me, proud libraries, For that which was lacking on all your well-fill’d shelves, yet needed […]...

Whence Cometh Such Tender Rapture? Whence cometh such tender rapture? Those curls they are not the first ones I’ve smoothened, and I’ve already Known lips […]...

To a soubrette ‘Tis years, soubrette, since last we met; And yet ah, yet, how swift and tender My thoughts go back in […]...

Psalm 119 part 9 Desire of knowledge; or, The teachings of the Spirit with the word. Ver. 64,68,18 Thy mercies fill the earth, O […]...

Adrift! A little boat adrift! Adrift! A little boat adrift! And night is coming down! Will no one guide a little boat Unto the nearest […]...

Song THE boat is chafing at our long delay, And we must leave too soon The spicy sea-pinks and the inborne […]...

Bermudas Where the remote Bermudas ride In th’ Oceans bosome unespy’d, From a small Boat, that row’d along, The listning Winds […]...

To Zoл Against the groaning mast I stand, The Atlantic surges swell, To bear me from my native land And Zoл’s wild […]...

To Certain Critics Then call me traitor if you must, Shout reason and default! Say I betray a sacred trust Aching beyond this […]...

Memorial Your body was a sacred cell always, A jewel that grew dull in garish light, An opal which beneath my […]...

The Phantom Horsewoman Queer are the ways of a man I know: He comes and stands In a careworn craze, And looks at […]...

Sea Sunset A gallant city has been builded far In the pied heaven, Bannered with crimson, sentinelled by star Of crystal even; […]...

Dear Harp of my Country Dear Harp of my Country! in darkness I found thee, The cold chain of Silence had hung o’er thee long. […]...

The Wild Old Wicked Man Because I am mad about women I am mad about the hills,’ Said that wild old wicked man Who travels […]...

For A Picture Of St. Dorothea I bear a basket lined with grass; I am so light, I am so fair, That men must wonder as […]...

Flirtation UPON thy purple mat thy body bare Is fine and limber like a tender tree. The motion of thy supple […]...

Break, Break, Break Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts […]...

Sonnet XLIV: Press'd by the Moon Press’d by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides, While the loud equinox its power combines, The sea no more its […]...

Related posts: