Skip to content
Linespedia

The Cranes Of Ibycus.

By Emma Lazarus

Topics: classic

There was a man who watched the river flow     Past the huge town, one gray November day.     Round him in narrow high-piled streets at play     The boys made merry as they saw him go,     Murmuring half-loud, with eyes upon the stream,     The immortal screed he held within his hand.     For he was walking in an April land     With Faust and Helen.    Shadowy as a dream     Was the prose-world, the river and the town.     Wild joy possessed him; through enchanted skies     He saw the cranes of Ibycus swoop down.     He closed the page, he lifted up his eyes,     Lo - a black line of birds in wavering thread     Bore him the greetings of the deathless dead!

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"There was a man who watched the river flow..."

Emma Lazarus's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "The Cranes Of Ibycus."... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Emma Lazarus

"There was a man who watched the river flow..." by Emma Lazarus

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

Related lines

"It comes not in such wise as she had deemed,         Else might she still have clung to her despair.     More tender, grateful than she could ha"

""Since that day till now our life is one unbroken paradise. We live a true brotherly life. Every evening after supper we take a seat under the mighty"

"O waters fresh and sweet and clear,     Where bathed her lovely frame,     Who seems the only lady unto me;     O gentle branch and dear,"

"Ten o'clock: the broken moon         Hangs not yet a half hour high,         Yellow as a shield of brass,     In the dewy air of June,"

"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"

Emma Lazarus

About Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) was an American poet best known for "The New Colossus," whose lines "Give me your tired, your poor" are inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. She was an early advocate for Jewish refugees and anti-Semitism awareness.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"It comes not in such wise as she had deemed,      ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

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