On The Water

Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme 1839 (Paris) – 1907 (Châtenay-Malabry)



The sound of bank and water is all I hear,
The sad resignation of a weeping spring
Or a rock that hourly sheds a tear,
And the birch leaves' vague quivering.

I do not see the river bear the boat along
The flowering shore flits past, and I remain;
And in the watery depths that I skim,
The reflected blue sky flutters like a curtain.

Meandering in their sleep, you might say the waters
Waver, no longer sure where the bank lies:
And the flower thrown in hesitates to choose.
And like this flower, all that man desires
Can settle on the river of my life,
Without teaching me which way my wishes lie.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

34 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XXXX BXXBXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 592
Words 116
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6

Rene Francois Armand Prudhomme

René François Armand (Sully) Prudhomme was a French poet and essayist.  more…

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    "On The Water" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29989/on-the-water>.

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