TO RETIREMENT
At last, O thou serene retreat
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From all my wanderings! Thou balm desired
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So long, that bringst me healing sweet
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From wounds naught else can heal! Inspired
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Seclusion, gracious welcome for the tired!
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At last, thou little thatch of straw
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Beneath whose eaves no lurking Care hath stayed,
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Where none within a comrade's glances saw
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The gleam of Envy e'er displayed—
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Nor voice was perjured, not a plot betrayed!
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Fair upland, sloping to the skies
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With peace beyond the thought of earth endowed—
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Beyond where in death's grapple vies
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The creature of the fevered crowd
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With thirst of dissolution and the shroud!—
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Receive me, mountain, oh receive
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Within thy fastness! For I come pursued
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By slander! — yea, unfinished leave
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The tasks that bring ingratitude,
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The peace that mocks, and earth's unhappy brood!—
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Where one, who late at haven-bar
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Hath lain to anchor calm, is now the prey
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Of winds that buffet him afar
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And waves that gulf him in their spray
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And rack his hapless timbers with dismay!
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Another meets the lurking rock
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And instant down the yawning waters goes
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Calamitous unto the shock!
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For one, becalmed, no life-breath blows;
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On Syrtean shoals the squall another throws;
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Whilst others are despairing prey
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To sudden midnight and the dread typhoon,
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And to the hungry Neptune pay
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Their lives in tribute mid the swoon;
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Some, bold to swim, are down the ocean strewn!
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Strive or surrender to the flood,
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What end must ultimate be his, who rides,
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Death-gripping through the foaming scud,
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Some broken spar his wreck provides
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Adown such vast abysm of roaring tides?
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Alas! — how often and how often thou,
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Unfailing haven, hast been my desire!
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Then of thy refuge fail not now —
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Fail not when I would so require
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'Mid such a sea of troubles blind and dire.
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Análisis métrico
45
Versos
9.8
Media silábica
442
Sílabas totales