All The Rivers
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward 1844 (Andover) – 1911
'All the rivers run into the sea.'
Like the pulsing of a river,
The motion of a song,
Wind the olden words along
The tortuous turnings of my thoughts whenever
I sit beside the sea.
'All the rivers run into the sea.'
O you little leaping river,
Laugh on beneath your breath!
With a heart as deep as death,
Strong stream, go patient, grave, and hasting never,-
I sit beside the sea.
'All the rivers run into the sea.'
Why the passion of a river?
The striving of a soul?
Calm the eternal waters roll
Upon the eternal shore. At last, whatever
Seeks it-finds the sea.
'All the rivers run into the sea.'
O thou bounding, burning river,
Hurrying heart! I seem
To know (so one knows in a dream)
That in the waiting heart of God forever,
Thou too shalt find the sea.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 44 sec read
- 60 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AbccbA AbddbA Abeeba Abffba |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 742 |
Words | 151 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
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"All The Rivers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/42904/all-the-rivers>.
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