A Sea-Side Walk Poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A Sea-Side Walk

Rating: 2.8


We walked beside the sea,
After a day which perished silently
Of its own glory---like the Princess weird
Who, combating the Genius, scorched and seared,
Uttered with burning breath, 'Ho! victory!'
And sank adown, an heap of ashes pale;
So runs the Arab tale.

The sky above us showed
An universal and unmoving cloud,
On which, the cliffs permitted us to see
Only the outline of their majesty,
As master-minds, when gazed at by the crowd!
And, shining with a gloom, the water grey
Swang in its moon-taught way.

Nor moon nor stars were out.
They did not dare to tread so soon about,
Though trembling, in the footsteps of the sun.
The light was neither night's nor day's, but one
Which, life-like, had a beauty in its doubt;
And Silence's impassioned breathings round
Seemed wandering into sound.

O solemn-beating heart
Of nature! I have knowledge that thou art
Bound unto man's by cords he cannot sever---
And, what time they are slackened by him ever,
So to attest his own supernal part,
Still runneth thy vibration fast and strong,
The slackened cord along.

For though we never spoke
Of the grey water anal the shaded rock,---
Dark wave and stone, unconsciously, were fused
Into the plaintive speaking that we used,
Of absent friends and memories unforsook;
And, had we seen each other's face, we had
Seen haply, each was sad.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Faruk 11 August 2021

Plz provide us Hindi translation of this poem

0 0 Reply
Carol Bailey 16 November 2016

I read this after posting my own poem on here. When I read this I understood it very strongly.

1 1 Reply
Brian Jani 13 May 2014

Elizabeth Amazing poetic skills here

2 2 Reply
* Sunprincess * 09 November 2013

seems to be the ending of a perfect day and now the party is over and everyone is sad.. nicely done

4 2 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success