Anthology of English Poetry

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... DOVER BEACH The sea is calm to-night The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; -- on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone: the cliffs of England stand, 5 Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched sand, Listen! you hear the grating roar 10 Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. 15 Sophocles long ago Heard it on the DEGREESEgean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, 20 Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the-folds of a bright girdle furled! But now I only hear 25 Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true 30 To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; 35 And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. (1-20) "moon-blanched sand." Cf. " Sohrab and Rustum " ..". as the vast tide Of the bright rocking ocean sets to shore At the full moon." Cf. " Tristram and Iseult" ..". the roar Of the near waves came, sadly grand, Through the dark, up the drowned sand." Cf. "A Summer Night" "moon-blanched street," and (131) of "The Forsaken Merman "; "blanched" is one of Arnold...