The Slow Pacific Swell Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDBBEEFFGH AAIIFFJJKKLLDD BBMMNNOOFFBBBB| Far out of sight forever stands the sea | A |
| Bounding the land with pale tranquillity | B |
| When a small child I watched it from a hill | C |
| At thirty miles or more The vision still | C |
| Lies in the eye soft blue and far away | D |
| The rain has washed the dust from April day | D |
| Paint brush and lupine lie against the ground | B |
| The wind above the hill top has the sound | B |
| Of distant water in unbroken sky | E |
| Dark and precise the little steamers ply | E |
| Firm in direction they seem not to stir | F |
| That is illusion The artificer | F |
| Of quiet distance holds me in a vise | G |
| And holds the ocean steady to my eyes | H |
| - | |
| - | |
| Once when I rounded Flattery the sea | A |
| Hove its loose weight like sand to tangle me | A |
| Upon the washing deck to crush the hull | I |
| Subsiding dragged flesh at the bone The skull | I |
| Felt the retreating wash of dreaming hair | F |
| Half drenched in dissolution I lay bare | F |
| I scarcely pulled myself erect I came | J |
| Back slowly slowly knew myself the same | J |
| That was the ocean From the ship we saw | K |
| Gray whales for miles the long sweep of the jaw | K |
| The blunt head plunging clean above the wave | L |
| And one rose in a tent of sea and gave | L |
| A darkening shudder water fell away | D |
| The whale stood shining and then sank in spray | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| A landsman I The sea is but a sound | B |
| I would be near it on a sandy mound | B |
| And hear the steady rushing of the deep | M |
| While I lay stinging in the sand with sleep | M |
| I have lived inland long The land is numb | N |
| It stands beneath the feet and one may come | N |
| Walking securely till the sea extends | O |
| Its limber margin and precision ends | O |
| By night a chaos of commingling power | F |
| The whole Pacific hovers hour by hour | F |
| The slow Pacific swell stirs on the sand | B |
| Sleeping to sink away withdrawing land | B |
| Heaving and wrinkled in the moon and blind | B |
| Or gathers seaward ebbing out of mind | B |
Yvor Winters
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Slow Pacific Swell poem by Yvor Winters
Best Poems of Yvor Winters