When gods are in dispute, one a Sidney, one a brute,
It would seem that human sense might not know, might not
spy;
But though nature smile and feign where foul play has stabbed
and slain,
There's a witness, an eye,
Nor will charms blind that eye.Nymph of the upland song and the sparkling leafage young,
For your merciful desire with these charms to beguile,
For ever be adored; muses yield you rich reward;
But you fail, though you smile--
That other does not smile.
MedusaI had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved,--a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.
-403-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Modern Verse in English, 1900-1950.
Contributors: David Cecil - Editor, Allen Tate - Editor.
Publisher: Macmillan.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 1958.
Page number: 403.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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