The Nympholept

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

There was a boy — not above childish fears —

With steps that faltered now and straining ears,

Timid, irresolute, yet dauntless still,

Who one bright dawn, when each remotest hill

Stood sharp and clear in Heaven’s unclouded blue

And all Earth shimmered with fresh-beaded dew,

Risen in the first beams of the gladdening sun,

Walked up into the mountains. One by one

Each towering trunk beneath his sturdy stride

Fell back, and ever wider and more wide

The boundless prospect opened. Long he strayed,

From dawn till the last trace of slanting shade

Had vanished from the canyons, and, dismayed

At that far length to which his path had led,

He paused — at such a height where overhead

The clouds hung close, the air came thin and chill,

And all was hushed and calm and very still,

Save, from abysmal gorges, where the sound

Of tumbling waters rose, and all around

The pines, by those keen upper currents blown,

Muttered in multitudinous monotone.

Here, with the wind in lovely locks laid bare,

With arms oft raised in dedicative prayer,

Lost in mute rapture and adoring wonder,

He stood, till the far noise of noontide thunder,

Rolled down upon the muffled harmonies

Of wind and waterfall and whispering trees,

Made loneliness more lone. Some Panic fear

Would seize him then, as they who seemed to hear

In Tracian valleys or Thessalian woods

The god’s hallooing wake the leafy solitudes;

I think it was the same: some piercing sense

Of Deity’s pervasive immanence,

The Life that visible Nature doth indwell

Grown great and near and all but palpable . . .

He might not linger, but with winged strides

Like one pursued, fled down the mountain-sides —

Down the long ridge that edged the steep ravine,

By glade and flowery lawn and upland green,

And never paused nor felt assured again

But where the grassy foothills opened. Then,

While shadows lengthened on the plain below

And the sun vanished and the sunset-glow

Looked back upon the world with fervid eye

Through the barred windows of the western sky,

Homeward he fared, while many a look behind

Showed the receding ranges dim-outlined,

Highland and hollow where his path had lain,

Veiled in deep purple of the mountain rain.

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• The Scarecrow by Ross D Tyler by Poetry In English
• The (REAL) Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare by Ross D Tyler by Poetry In English
• The missing pen by Ross D Tyler by Poetry In English
• The Appointment by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• Ten Years After by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• Telescopes In The Square by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• South Africa by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Shattered Dreams. Broken Promises. by Russell James by Poetry In English
• Savour Your Life by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Rosslyn To The Prime Minister by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• Writing to Onegin by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• Icicles round a Tree in Dumfriesshire by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• Pan’s Lament by Rose Mary Boehm by Poetry In English
• On The Menu by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• Night by Ruth Padel by Poetry In English
• Nanna by Ross D Tyler by Poetry In English
• My Views of Man by Ronald G. Auguste by Poetry In English
• Multi-Miners & Co. Present Ned Kelly by Graham Rowlands by Poetry In English
• Miss Worthington by Rose Mary Boehm by Poetry In English
• Meant To Be by Russ Pergram by Poetry In English

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