Kentucky poems / Madison Cawein; with an introd. by Edmund Gosse [electronic text]
About this Item
Title
Kentucky poems / Madison Cawein; with an introd. by Edmund Gosse [electronic text]
Author
Cawein, Madison Julius, 1865-1914
Publication
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
1903
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"Kentucky poems / Madison Cawein; with an introd. by Edmund Gosse [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAD1892.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 6, 2024.
Pages
THE DREAM
THIS was my dream:It seemed the afternoonLine 2 Of some deep tropic day; and yet the moonStood round and bright with golden alchemyHigh in a heaven bluer than the sea.Long lawny lengths of perishable cloudHung in a west o'er rolling forests bowed;Clouds raining colours, gold and violet,That, opening, seemed from mystic worlds to letHints down of Parian beauty and lost charmsOf dim immortals, young, with floating forms.And all about me fruited orchards grew,Pear, quince and peach, and plums of dusty blue;
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Rose-apricots and apples streaked with fire,Kissed into ripeness by the sun's desireAnd big with juice. And on far, fading hills,Down which it seemed a hundred torrent rillsFlashed rushing silver, vines and vines and vinesOf purple vintage swollen with cool wines;Pale pleasant wines and fragrant as late June,Their delicate tang drawn from the wine-white moon.And from the clouds o'er this sweet world there drippedAn odorous music, strangely feverish-lipped,That swung and swooned and panted in mad sighs;Investing at each throb the air with eyes,And forms of sensuous spirits, limpid white,Clad on with raiment as of starry night;Fair, faint embodiments of melody,From out whose hearts of crystal one could see
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The music stream like light through delicate handsHollowing a lamp. And as on sounding sandsThe ocean murmur haunts the rosy shells,Within whose convolutions beauty dwells,My soul became a vibrant harp of love,Re-echoing all the harmony above.
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