Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Deluge and Other Poems
    The Deluge and Other Poems
    The Deluge and Other Poems
    Ebook92 pages47 minutes

    The Deluge and Other Poems

    By John Presland

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    The Deluge and Other Poems

    Read more from John Presland

    Related to The Deluge and Other Poems

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Five Poems

      May 1, 2023

      Let’s be GodFor a moment, Shall we?That which invites Composition,That which is suspended From a great height,The presence Of approximationHeavy in the meadows, I’m not afraid,And yet My shroud vanishesIn these lines, I am so weptPast weeping, And wh

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Epic Of Gilgamesh

      Jan 1, 2020

      My friends, who can reach heaven? The monster bellows like a river swollen with flood.Many are consumed in his fiery breath. My friends, who can reach heaven? Let us ask the mountain for a sign.Let us cut the spirits from the cedars. My friends, who

      3 min read

    • Article

      from 36 WAYS OF WRITING A VIETNAMESE POEM

      Feb 28, 2023

      You can’t go far wrong with violence.You’ll go far, my boy.You’ll cross oceans, my boy. Start with the Fall, go back or forth,Through bombs or boats,Across all the killing fields of thought. You can’t make it upBecause it’s all yours—by blood.By righ

      4 min read

    • Article

      Echo and Narcissus

      Mar 7, 2022

      Echo and Narcissus
      7 min read

    • Article

      TEN POEMS Translations of Rafael Alberti

      May 1, 2024

      Throughout the centuries,through the nothingness of the world,I, without sleep, search for you. Behind me, imperceptible,without touching my shoulders,my dead angel keeps watch. Where is Paradise,Shadow, you who have been there?I ask silently. Cities

      3 min read

    • Article

      An Interview With Xueyan

      Jun 24, 2023

      An Interview With Xueyan
      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Sep 1, 2023

      This poem is for everyperson who will neverread it either by choiceor circumstance I writeit in silence wherethe most realparts of our liveslive like a shoe lostin an alley or an emptyboat in a black sea butmore like the fallenleaf on the other sideo

      2 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Nov 1, 2020

      Sitting in the cafe of a local bookstore, I listen to the coffeecolored woman lull her child to sleep. A soothing tongue passes through the gap in her teeth and I can’t help but wonder if this were the song my ancestress sang to give me breath. Givin

      2 min read

    • Article

      Home

      Feb 25, 2019

      I once lived in a yellow little house. Each morning, birds convened and sang at my bedroom window. The gate was indigo and inside the garden all kinds of flowers rose to kiss the sunny walls. The yellow nest was filled with cherished books, colourful

      5 min read

    • Article

      [FROM THE GRIMOIRE]: Spell For Binding A Man To A Man

      Jun 3, 2021

      Not by amulets but by words and scents and signs:the air awake and still, blue as flag or water hyacinth.Tone of neutrality. Color of equality. A middle spacewhere like things congregate, all motion all energy— as the bond was with my Lord and his Ap

      1 min read

    • Article

      Seven Poems

      Sep 1, 2021

      The dancersIn a terribly brightLight blue gauzeRetained the mystery Skating on a lakeBlue and iceAn illusionary timeWhere poetry feels inevitable The terrific clownWho lies insideEvery blue dressDoes he see me Always a starAlways a rootHorrible auras

      2 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      May 1, 2019

      “My arm is so brown and so beautiful,” is a thought I haveas I’m about to turn off the lamp and go to sleep.I look at it a moment in the soft glow, and see it, briefly,as though it belonged to someone else. A reddishkind of brown, like a toasted almo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2023

      And god created the waves and we the graves beneath, bodies madeparticulate by the force of water against water, water against rock, againsttime. I descend into the deep in a kind of prayer, listen to its centuries.Make me pay, will you, make me hurt

      3 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2023

      For I woke with a walnut for a skullFor every star switched on, burning through black pagesFor if you seek God you will find His childrenFor everything I know fits in a walnutFor every scene I once lived now invisible For I didn’t want to meet people

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Sensual and Divine Earth

      Feb 27, 2024

      The Sensual and Divine Earth
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jul 1, 2022

      The embers of a Thousand YearsUncovered by the HandThat fondled them when they were FireWill stir and understand——from Emily Dickinson’s “1383” Remember when we hurriedourselves into the evening’s sacral blaze: Our coal-covered bridal gownsdrenched i

      6 min read

    • Article

      Joyous, You

      May 5, 2022

      today, as you lay on the spider swingthat I pushed gently to the rhythm of my breath,you closed your eyes, and the light rested on your face,and the birds flew back to the trees, and farawaya storm was brewing like a rumour, no one wouldbelieve it; I

      1 min read

    • Article

      Demeter

      Apr 7, 2022

      Demeter
      4 min read

    • Article

      from BLACK PASTORAL

      Nov 1, 2023

      somewheres, some lifetimes ago I have run so far, so long.There is nowhere I haven’t beenBut here, in this field, a bodyLength from the ragged brinkThat gives way to forest.I collapsed here, the thin, hard slipOf me whittled at both ends.I want badly

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Healing Power

      Dec 12, 2020

      The Healing Power
      6 min read

    Reviews for The Deluge and Other Poems

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Deluge and Other Poems - John Presland

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deluge and Other Poems, by John Presland

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: The Deluge and Other Poems

      Author: John Presland

      Release Date: October 13, 2011 [EBook #37751]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELUGE AND OTHER POEMS ***

      Produced by Al Haines

      THE DELUGE

      AND OTHER POEMS

      BY

      JOHN PRESLAND

      AUTHOR OF MANIN AND THE DEFENCE OF VENICE

      MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, ETC.

      LONDON

      CHATTO & WINDUS

      1911

      All rights reserved

      CONTENTS

      The Deluge

      Sonnets—

      To J. F. W.

      To Andrew Chatto

      November

      To a Robin in December

      A January Morning

      February

      To April—I

      To April—II

      To Daniel Manin

      To the Leaders of both Parties

      Consolation

      Tapestry

      Wisdom and Youth

      A Villa on the Bay of Naples

      A Song

      The Ballad of a Sea-Nymph

      Chrysanthemums

      A Courtly Madrigal

      In Arcadia

      A Ballad of King Richard

      In the Valley of the Shadow

      THE DELUGE

      The Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair.—Genesis vi. 2.

      DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

      The Seeker after Truth

      His Wife

      His Mother

      Chorus

      SCENE I

      The wife and the mother spinning

      THE WIFE (sings)

      Love, it is dark among your roses,

      The face of the moon is turned away,

      The nightingale is silent and lonely;

      Lean from your window a little way!—

      Lean but a little way towards me,

      Out of the window where jasmines twine,

      Open the lattice, softly, slowly,

      Till the light of your eyes shall gladden mine.

      Love, it is dark among your roses;

      And how, since the nightingales are fled,

      Can I tell your heart how my heart is lowly,

      To touch the ground where your sandals tread?

      This is your garden; these your flowers;

      These stars have seen you; these dews have known;

      And now your eyes and your smile you give me—

      Give me your love, and be all mine own!

      THE MOTHER

      Sing that again, the music soothes my ear.

      THE WIFE

      My husband made it for me ere we wed,

      And sang it in my garden; I arose

      And leaned down to him, and my fingers gave

      To all his kisses. Ah! those days were sweet.

      THE MOTHER

      Not sweet now?

      THE WIFE

      I am happy in his love

      And thank God for it, nay, propitiate

      With vows and offering; I fear a wrath

      Called down on too great happiness; I fear—

      I know not what—Oh, I possess a gift

      So rare and precious, that, like men who go

      Laden with rubies, I am grown suspect

      Of all the earth and heaven, feel the stars

      Peer covetously on me. Every hour

      That he is from my side a cloud of woe

      Settles upon me like a swarm of bees.

      Ah, is it possible that we can sin

      In happiness, against a jealous God?

      THE MOTHER

      Nay, nay, these foolish thoughts! your wits are strayed

      With too much brooding: let me bind afresh

      The knot of scarlet lilies in your hair;

      They fade already, for the sun is high

      Towards the noon: Ah, child, what waits for you

      But love, and yet more love, and happiness,

      And children of delight, and in old age

      Respect of all the peoples, and at last

      Death in his arms and burial in peace?

      Still do you tremble, what is it you fear?

      THE WIFE

      Can you not feel a something in the air,

      A warning, or a presence, or the weight

      Of some unguessed-at horror, that, like dust

      Impalpable and deadly, clings and kills?

      There is some terror—'tis my heart that speaks

      And warns me—ah! would God indeed, your son,

      (My love and husband) had another father

      Than that celestial being. This it is

      That puts eternal sadness on his brow,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1