Wild honey from various thyme By Michael Field [i.e. K. H. Bradley and E. E. Cooper] |
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A LIVING ALTAR |
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 | Wild honey from various thyme |  |
64
A LIVING ALTAR
Silence behind the colonnade of pines
Is built a temple hidden by their boles:
Below the unlit, grassy hillside rolls
Its pathway space, and where its slope declines
Is built a temple hidden by their boles:
Below the unlit, grassy hillside rolls
Its pathway space, and where its slope declines
Sits an old fox, as in Rome's Forum sat
The central wolf. Dim 'mid the solitude,
Its sombre, tutelary image rude,
He concentrates the forest round his plat.
The central wolf. Dim 'mid the solitude,
Its sombre, tutelary image rude,
He concentrates the forest round his plat.
But, as our presence reaches to him, lo,
He trots away with outstretched tail, with spring
Of his spare paws to bramble covering:
He trots away with outstretched tail, with spring
Of his spare paws to bramble covering:
While we, blank, superstitious, see him go,
And, our eyes fixed upon the way he clove,
Watch a religion fall, a shrine remove.
And, our eyes fixed upon the way he clove,
Watch a religion fall, a shrine remove.
| Wild honey from various thyme | |