Tampa Robins

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



The robin laughed in the orange-tree:
"Ho, windy North, a fig for thee:
While breasts are red and wings are bold
And green trees wave us globes of gold,
 Time's scythe shall reap but bliss for me
 -- Sunlight, song, and the orange-tree.

Burn, golden globes in leafy sky,
My orange-planets:  crimson I
Will shine and shoot among the spheres
(Blithe meteor that no mortal fears)
 And thrid the heavenly orange-tree
 With orbits bright of minstrelsy.

If that I hate wild winter's spite --
The gibbet trees, the world in white,
The sky but gray wind over a grave --
Why should I ache, the season's slave?
 I'll sing from the top of the orange-tree
 `Gramercy, winter's tyranny.'

I'll south with the sun, and keep my clime;
My wing is king of the summer-time;
My breast to the sun his torch shall hold;
And I'll call down through the green and gold
 `Time, take thy scythe, reap bliss for me,
 Bestir thee under the orange-tree.'"

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

52 sec read
114

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBAA CCDDAD EEFFAA GGBBAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 910
Words 169
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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