Flood
by James Joyce
Gold-brown upon the sated flood
The rock-vine clusters lift and sway:
Vast wings above the lambent waters brood
Of sullen day.
A waste of waters ruthlessly
Sways and uplifts its weedy mane,
Where brooding day stares down upon the sea
In dull disdain.
Uplift and sway, O golden vine,
Thy clustered fruits to love’s full flood,
Lambent and vast and ruthless as is thine
Incertitude.
Born in Dublin, James Joyce–well-known for his novels Portrait of the Artist as Young Man and Ulysses–also published numerous books of poetry. Ezra Pound championed his work and included Joyce’s poems in his Imagist Anthology.
