Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By FrederickPeterson

1459 Solitude

IT is the bittern’s solemn cry

Far out upon the lonely moors,

Where steel-gray pools reflect the sky,

And mists arise in dim contours.

Save this, no murmur on their verge

Doth stir the stillness of the reeds;

Silent the water-snakes emerge

From writhing depths of water-weeds.

Through sedge or gorse of that morass

There shines no light of moon or star;

Only the fen-fires gleam and pass

Along the low horizon bar.

It is the bittern’s solemn cry,

AS if it voiced, with mournful stress

The strange hereditary sigh

Of age on age of loneliness.