Wild honey from various thyme By Michael Field [i.e. K. H. Bradley and E. E. Cooper] |
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| II. | II IN THE GATE |
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 | Wild honey from various thyme |  |
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II
IN THE GATE
They mark how with a wizard's roving eye
He overlooketh them and doth not stir—
Broods he upon his fair son's murderer?
Will he take thought of Joab till he die?
Phantom the king remains as they pass by,
His gaze fixed as, of old, on Bathsheba,
And the clear night-time striking down on her.
How sweet her bathing! And the oak hard by
Thick in its bushes, tangling bushy locks—
He stares as one dead from all comforting.
But the long years flew past, years that are gone,
Tender, more tender years, till he looks on
A shepherd boy at peace among his flocks:
And turneth to the people as their king.
| Wild honey from various thyme | |