A thrush, because I’d been wrong,
In a world not vague, not lonely,Not governed by me only.
Richard Wilbur
For Alexander there was no Far East,
India ended. Free Cathay at leastDid not contribute to his discontent.But Newton, who had grasped all space, was moreSerene. To him it seemed that he’d but playedWith several shells and pebbles on the shoreOf that profundity he had not made.Swiss Einstein with his relativity –Most secure of all. God does not play diceWith the cosmos…
A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra
for Dore and AdjaUnder the bronze crownToo big for the head of the stone cherub whose feetA serpent has begun to eat,Sweet water brims a cockle and braids downPast spattered mosses, breaksOn the tipped edge of a second shell, and fillsThe massive third below. It spillsIn threads then from the scalloped rim, and makesA scrim…
Sidling upon the river, the white boat
Shaken the shore towns like a Judgment warning,Telling the palsied water its demandThat the crime come to the top again, and float,That the sunk murder rise to the light and land.Blam! In the noon’s perfected brilliance burnBrief blooms of flame, which soil away in smoke;And down below, where slowed concussion brokeThe umber stroll of waters,…
The tall camels of the spirit
With the sawmill shrill of the locust, to the whole honey of thearidSun. They are slow, proud,And move with a stilted strideTo the land of sheer horizon, hunting Traherne’sSensible emptiness, there where the brain’s lantern-slideRevels in vast returns.O connoisseurs of thirst,Beasts of my soul who long to learn to drinkOf pure mirage, those prosperous islands…
The warping night air having brought the boom
We tell the wakened child that all she heardWas an odd question from a forest bird,Asking of us, if rightly listened to,‘Who cooks for you?’ and then ‘Who cooks for you?’Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear,Can also thus domesticate a fear,And send a small child back to sleep at nightNot listening for the…
At the end a
The King being out of danger,Stewart Granger(As Rudolph Rassendyll)Must swallow a bitter pillBy renouncing his co-star,Deborah Kerr.It would be poor behaviaIn him and in Princess FlaviaWere they to put their ownConcerns before those of the Throne.Deborah Kerr must wedThe King instead.Rassendyll turns to go.Must it be so?Why can’t they have their cakeAnd eat it, for…
One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides
On water; it glidesSo from the walker, it turnsDry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of youValleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes.The beautiful changes as a forest is changedBy a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it;As a mantis, arrangedOn a green leaf, growsInto it, makes the leaf leafier, and provesAny greenness is…
After the last bulletins the windows darken
Sliding on all its pillowsTo the thronged Atlantis of personal sleep,And the wind rises. The wind rises and bowlsThe day’s litter of news in the alleys. TrashTears itself on the railings,Soars and falls with a soft crash,Tumbles and soars again. Unruly flightsScamper the park, and taking a statue for deadStrike at the positive eyes,Batter and…
The horse beneath me seemed
Through the horror of snow I dreamed,And so I had no fear,Nor was I chilled to deathBy the wind’s white shudders, thanksTo the veils of his patient breathAnd the mist of sweat from his flanks.It seemed that all night through,Within my hand no reinAnd nothing in my viewBut the pillar of his mane,I rode with…