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Tampa Robins.

By Sidney Lanier

Topics: classic

The robin laughed in the orange-tree:     "Ho, windy North, a fig for thee:     While breasts are red and wings are bold     And green trees wave us globes of gold,     Time's scythe shall reap but bliss for me      - Sunlight, song, and the orange-tree.     Burn, golden globes in leafy sky,     My orange-planets: crimson I     Will shine and shoot among the spheres     (Blithe meteor that no mortal fears)     And thrid the heavenly orange-tree     With orbits bright of minstrelsy.     If that I hate wild winter's spite -     The gibbet trees, the world in white,     The sky but gray wind over a grave -     Why should I ache, the season's slave?     I'll sing from the top of the orange-tree     `Gramercy, winter's tyranny.'     I'll south with the sun, and keep my clime;     My wing is king of the summer-time;     My breast to the sun his torch shall hold;     And I'll call down through the green and gold     `Time, take thy scythe, reap bliss for me,     Bestir thee under the orange-tree.'"     Tampa, Florida, 1877.

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"The robin laughed in the orange-tree:..."

"Tampa Robins." is a quintessential example of Sidney Lanier's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:Sidney Lanier

"The robin laughed in the orange-tree:..." by Sidney Lanier

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"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"

Sidney Lanier

About Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) was an American poet and musician whose poems—including "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Song of the Chattahoochee"—are known for their musical quality and celebration of the Southern landscape.

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