The Enviable Isles

Herman Melville 1819 – 1891



_From 'Rammon.'_

Through storms you reach them and from
storms are free.
Afar descried, the foremost drear in hue,
But, nearer, green; and, on the marge, the sea
Makes thunder low and mist of rainbowed
dew.

But, inland, where the sleep that folds the hills
A dreamier sleep, the trance of God, instills--
On uplands hazed, in wandering airs
aswoon,
Slow-swaying palms salute love's cypress tree
Adown in vale where pebbly runlets croon
A song to lull all sorrow and all glee.

Sweet-fern and moss in many a glade are here.
Where, strewn in flocks, what cheek-flushed
myriads lie
Dimpling in dream--unconscious slumberers
mere,
While billows endless round the beaches die.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
91

Quick analysis:

Scheme XABACB DDXEAEA XCXDXC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 659
Words 114
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 7, 6

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was an American writer best known for the novel Moby-Dick. more…

All Herman Melville poems | Herman Melville Books

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