Becalmed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker compares the mind to a sailing vessel becalmed on a level, amethyst sea beneath golden mist, still short of its destination. The speaker calls on inspiration and song to fill its sails and awaken movement.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Metapoetry · 152 words
First lines
Becalmed upon the sea of Thought, / Still unattained the land it sought, / My mind, with loosely-hanging sails, / Lies waiting the auspicious gales.
On either side, behind, before, / The ocean stretches like a floor, -- / A level floor of amethyst, / Crowned by a golden dome of mist.
Blow, breath of inspiration, blow! / Shake and uplift this golden glow! / And fill the canvas of the mind / With wafts of thy celestial wind.
Blow, breath of song! until I feel / The straining sail, the lifting keel, / The life of the awakening sea, / Its motion and its mystery!
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Four quatrains express the speaker’s stalled mental state and urgent appeal for inspiration through rhyming couplets.
- Metapoetry — The speaker asks the breath of inspiration and song to animate the mind, presenting poetic creation as wind filling a vessel’s sails.
Tags
poetic inspiration · creative stagnation · sailing imagery · song
What this Textopian page supports
Becalmed is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Metapoetry
- Length: 152 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
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