Skip to content
Linespedia

From The Portuguese Of Semedo. - Sonnet. (Translations.)

By William Cullen Bryant

Topics: classic

It is a fearful night; a feeble glare     Streams from the sick moon in the o'erclouded sky;     The ridgy billows, with a mighty cry,     Rush on the foamy beaches wild and bare;     No bark the madness of the waves will dare;     The sailors sleep; the winds are loud and high;     Ah, peerless Laura! for whose love I die,     Who gazes on thy smiles while I despair?     As thus, in bitterness of heart, I cried,     I turned, and saw my Laura, kind and bright,     A messenger of gladness, at my side:     To my poor bark she sprang with footstep light,     And as we furrowed Tago's heaving tide,     I never saw so beautiful a night.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"It is a fearful night; a feeble glare..."

Exploring the themes of classic, William Cullen Bryant delivers a powerful performance in "From The Portuguese Of Semedo. - Sonnet. (Translations.)"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:William Cullen Bryant

"It is a fearful night; a feeble glare..." by William Cullen Bryant

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Upon the mountain's distant head,     With trackless snows for ever white,     Where all is still, and cold, and dead,     Late shines the day'"

"Where olive leaves were twinkling in every wind that blew,     There sat beneath the pleasant shade a damsel of Peru.     Betwixt the slender bo"

"Midst greens and shades the Catterskill leaps,     From cliffs where the wood-flower clings;     All summer he moistens his verdant steeps"

"Matron! the children of whose love,     Each to his grave, in youth hath passed,     And now the mould is heaped above     The dearest and the"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

William Cullen Bryant

About William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) was an American poet and journalist. His poem "Thanatopsis" (1817) was the first major American poem. He edited the New York Evening Post for 50 years and was a champion of American poetry.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Upon the mountain's distant head,     With trackle..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.