From The Shore Poem by Carl Sandburg

From The Shore

Rating: 3.3


A lone gray bird,
Dim-dipping, far-flying,
Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults
Of night and the sea
And the stars and storms.

Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers,
Out into the gloom it swings and batters,
Out into the wind and the rain and the vast,
Out into the pit of a great black world,
Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown,
Love of mist and rapture of flight,
Glories of chance and hazards of death
On its eager and palpitant wings.

Out into the deep of the great dark world,
Beyond the long borders where foam and drift
Of the sundering waves are lost and gone
On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
John S 20 October 2013

He chose nice descriptive words: Alone in the shadows and grandeurs and tumults, rapture of flight, eager and palpitant wings The only thing that really, really bothers me about modern poetry is that the poets don't rhyme. That's just personal preference. I think a poem flows so much better when the lines rhyme. This poem got a 6.2 with 75 votes. With his beautiful, descriptive words if he'd have made this rhyme I think the score would be much higher! What do modern poets have against rhyming anyway? ?

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in most poems where we do see words rhyming, it's mostly a cheerful poem, trying to make you feel better. But Sandburg often writes poems with a kind of depressing motive, so it wouldn't really fit the idea

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John Richter 20 October 2014

Interesting, I would say. Haven't each of us - at one time or another - sat in a beautiful place - alone - devoid of other soul's, and watched a bird glide in the steep winds? I have. Many times. I can't think of a more beautiful way to express such an encounter. I think that is the magic of Mr. Sandburg - his ability to reach into the reader and find commonality - and then enhance it by transferring the mundane into great wonder.

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Liliana ~el 20 October 2013

Magnificent imagery; painted complete scene of chance, love, death, eagerness... Wonderful!

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Gangadharan Nair Pulingat 20 October 2014

Very interesting poem. How beautifully narrated the flying of birds in such adversities of nature and the poet sees the flying as glories of chance and hazards of death a great imagination. This is a marvelous poem.

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Sylvia Frances Chan 22 January 2024

as well as the glories of chance and hazards of death. The poem is a beautiful and evocative meditation on the beauty and mystery of the natural world, and the ways in which we can find meaning and inspiration in the things around us

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Sylvia Frances Chan 22 January 2024

About a lone bird that is flying over the sea at night. The bird is described as "dim-dipping, far-flying" and is alone in the shadows and grandeurs of the night and the sea. It explores the bird's love of mist and rapture of flight,

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MAHTAB BANGALEE 05 February 2023

a lonely gray bird from the deep shore to the dark world! ~ just wonderful poem penned

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Darren Jkoeryo 03 February 2023

Words created scene in my mind. Such a power packed poetry.

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rguyghdfhge bordomatoli 04 January 2020

egg egg egg egg egg eggegg egg eggegg egg eggegg egg eggegg egg egg

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