The Pelican Island, and Other Poems |
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abyss adamantine amidst appear'd beautiful beheld beneath billow birds Blessed bliss bosom breast breath breeze brood brute burthen CANTO champaign child clouds coral reef darkness dead death dreams earth eternity evanescent fail'd fair isles fall'n fear fell felt fill'd fire flowers follow'd form'd gaze glory happy hath heart heaven hyæna immortal infant isle kindred knew light little vampire living look'd lost mercy mind morn mountains musquitos Nature Nature's nest never night o'er ocean open'd Paradise peace PELICAN ISLAND perish pinions prey rain random seed rapture reach'd reef reptiles rocks round scene secret seem'd serpent's venom shadow shine shone shore slow-worm small isle song soul spirit star by star stars stood strange sweet thee thence Thou art thoughts thousand touch'd trees turn'd Twas vanish'd vex'd voice watch'd waves whence wild wind wings wrought
Popular passages
Page 219 - close, To gather round an aching breast The curtain of repose, Stretch the tired limbs, and lay the head Down on our own delightful bed ! Night is the time for dreams; The gay romance of life, When truth that is, and truth that seems, Mix in fantastic strife: Ah ! visions, less beguiling far Than waking dreams by daylight are
Page 195 - THRICE welcome, little English flower! My mother-country's white and red, In rose or lily, till this hour, Never to me such beauty spread: Transplanted from thine island-bed, A treasure in a grain of earth, Strange as a spirit from the dead, Thine embryo sprang to birth.
Page 14 - forth, and from his roaring nostrils sent Two fountains to the sky, then plunged amain In headlong pastime through the closing gulf. These were but preludes to the revelry That reign'd at sunset: then the deep let loose Its blithe adventurers to sport at large, As kindly instinct taught them; buoyant
Page 30 - creatures in existence, What are the works of intellectual man ? Towers, temples, palaces, and sepulchres; Ideal images in sculptured forms, Thoughts hewn in columns, or in domes expanded, Fancies through every maze of beauty shown ; Pride, gratitude, affection turn'd to marble, In honour of the living or the dead; What are they?
Page 26 - every one, By instinct taught, perform'd its little task ; — To build its dwelling and its sepulchre, From its own essence exquisitely modell'd; There breed, and die, and leave a progeny, Still multiplied beyond the reach of numbers, To frame new cells and tombs ; then breed and die As all their ancestors had done, — and rest, Hermetically seal'd, each
Page 226 - fervours beating, When droop thy temples o'er thy breast, Cheer up, cheer up; Grey twilight, cool and fleeting, Wafts on its wing the hour of rest. Death springs to life: — Though brief and sad thy story, Thy years all spent in care and gloom, Look up, look up; Eternity and glory Dawn through the portals of the tomb.
Page 257 - vow With heart and voice, eternal enmity Against oppression by your brethren's hands ; Till man nor woman under Britain's laws, Nor son nor daughter born within her empire, Shall buy, or sell, or hold, or be a slave. THOUGHTS AND IMAGES.
Page 69 - in silence rear'd Tower after tower beneath the dark abyss. Pyramidal in form the fabrics rose, From ample basements narrowing to the height, Until they pierced the surface of the flood, And dimpling eddies sparkled round their peaks. Then (if great things with small may be compared) They spread like water-lilies, whose broad leaves Make green
Page 243 - said that microscopic power Might through its swaddling folds descry The infant-image of the flower, Too exquisite to meet the eye. This, vernal suns and rains will swell, Till from its dark abode it peep, Like Venus rising from her shell, Amidst the spring-tide of the deep.
Page 223 - words, — we meet again ! Love's own language, comfort darting Through the souls of friends at parting: Life in death, — we meet again ! While we walk this vale of tears, Compass'd round with care and sorrow, Gloom to-day, and storm to-morrow, " Meet again !