Skip to content
Linespedia

Sunk Lyonesse

Topics: classic

In sea-cold Lyonesse,         When the Sabbath eve shafts down      On the roofs, walls, belfries         Of the foundered town,      The Nereids pluck their lyres         Where the green translucency beats,      And with motionless eyes at gaze         Make minstrelsy in the streets.      The ocean water stirs         In salt-worn casemate and porch      Plies the blunt-snouted fish         With fire in his skull for torch.      And the ringing wires resound;         And the unearthly lovely weep,      In lament of the music they make         In the sullen courts of sleep.      Whose marble flowers bloom for aye,         And - lapped by the moon-guiled tide -      Mock their carver with heart of stone,         Caged in his stone-ribbed side.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"In sea-cold Lyonesse,..."

"Sunk Lyonesse" is a quintessential example of Walter De La Mare's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Have you been catching of fish, Tom Noddy?         Have you snared a weeping hare?     Have you whistled, 'No Nunny,'and gunned a poor bunny,"

"Sand, sand; hills of sand;         And the wind where nothing is      Green and sweet of the land;         No grass, no trees,         No bir"

"Like an old battle, youth is wild With bugle and spear, and counter cry, Fanfare and drummery, yet a child Dreaming of that sweet chivalry, T"

"There was nought in the Valley      But a Tower of Ivory, Its base enwreathed with red      Flowers that at evening      Caught the sun's cr"

"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"

Continue Reading

"Have you been catching of fish, Tom Noddy?        ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

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