The Poems of Sidney Lanier

Contents:
Author: Sidney Lanier

VI.

"They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled;
Brain rose again, ungloved;
Heart fainting smiled, and softly said,
`My love to my Beloved.’"

Heart and Brain! no more be twain;
Throb and think, one flesh again!
Lo! they weep, they turn, they run;
Lo! they kiss: Love, thou art one!

--------

Now the Land, with drying tears,
Counts him up his flocks of years,
"See," he says, "my substance grows;
Hundred-flocked my Herdsman goes,
Hundred-flocked my Herdsman stands
On the Past’s broad meadow-lands,
Come from where ye mildly graze,
Black herds, white herds, nights and days.
Drive them homeward, Herdsman Time,
From the meadows of the Prime:
I will feast my house, and rest.
Neighbor East, come over West;
Pledge me in good wine and words
While I count my hundred herds,
Sum the substance of my Past
From the first unto the last,
Chanting o’er the generous brim
Cloudy memories yet more dim,
Ghostly rhymes of Norsemen pale
Staring by old Bjoerne’s sail,
Strains more noble of that night
Worn Columbus saw his Light,
Psalms of still more heavenly tone,
How the Mayflower tossed alone,
Olden tale and later song
Of the Patriot’s love and wrong,
Grandsire’s ballad, nurse’s hymn —
Chanting o’er the sparkling brim
Till I shall from first to last
Sum the substance of my Past."

--------

Then called the Artist’s God from in the sky:
"This Time shall show by dream and mystery
The heart of all his matter to thine eye.
Son, study stars by looking down in streams,
Interpret that which is by that which seems,
And tell thy dreams in words which are but dreams."

Contents:

Related Resources

None available for this document.

Download Options


Title: The Poems of Sidney Lanier

Select an option:

*Note: A download may not start for up to 60 seconds.

Email Options


Title: The Poems of Sidney Lanier

Select an option:

Email addres:

*Note: It may take up to 60 seconds for for the email to be generated.

Chicago: Sidney Lanier, "6," The Poems of Sidney Lanier, ed. Callaway, Morgan, Jr., 1962- in The Poems of Sidney Lanier (New York: George E. Wood, 1850), Original Sources, accessed May 8, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=4LD1PQNA9IB8D3C.

MLA: Lanier, Sidney. "6." The Poems of Sidney Lanier, edited by Callaway, Morgan, Jr., 1962-, in The Poems of Sidney Lanier, New York, George E. Wood, 1850, Original Sources. 8 May. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=4LD1PQNA9IB8D3C.

Harvard: Lanier, S, '6' in The Poems of Sidney Lanier, ed. . cited in 1850, The Poems of Sidney Lanier, George E. Wood, New York. Original Sources, retrieved 8 May 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=4LD1PQNA9IB8D3C.