On the Norman Cliffs by Marie Van Vorst

Name: On the Norman Cliffs
Author: Marie Van Vorst

The speaker compares her boundless love to the rich Norman summer landscape, where poppies, grain, warmth, and golden rain flow toward the sea. Although high cliffs and far, cold waters separate her from her beloved “by Fate” as if by a universe, her love remains constant. Unable to give its treasure elsewhere, she longs to place it upon the beloved’s heart.

By Marie Van Vorst · First published 1893 · Genre: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry · 154 words

First lines

The summer fields sweep to the farther blue / Crimson with poppies, yellow gold with grain. / They roll their warm wealth seaward -- thus to you / I bring my boundless love. Dearest, in vain / Would I bestow its treasure otherwhere; / It floods to find your heart -- enfold it there!

The land's caress the far seas never knew; / Not on the wave falls the sweet rain of gold. / Far lie the changeful waters, pure and cold, / Sundered by the high cliffs: thus I from you / By Fate am kept a universe apart. / And yet my constant thought inspires me / To seek to lay my love upon your heart.

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On the Norman Cliffs is listed on Textopian as a poem by Marie Van Vorst, dated 1893 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Marie Van Vorst
Date: 1893 CE
Language: English
Genres: Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Sonnet
Length: 154 words
Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Similar titles

Genres

Love Poetry — The poem directly addresses a beloved and centers on the speaker's boundless, constant love and desire to offer it to the beloved's heart.
Lyric Poetry — It is a short, intensely personal meditation expressing emotion through a first-person speaker, musical language, and concentrated imagery rather than narrative action.
Nature Poetry — Norman fields, poppies, grain, sea, rain, waves, and high cliffs form the poem's central imagery and serve as reflections of the speaker's emotional condition.
Romantic Poetry — The work emphasizes idealized devotion, emotional intensity, separation by fate, and the symbolic correspondence between dramatic landscape and private feeling.