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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CHIMNEY AFIRE, by JOHN FREEMAN Poet's Biography
First Line: Like a chimney afire
Last Line: The clamour of owlet throats.
Subject(s): Moon
First Line: Like a chimney afire
Last Line: The clamour of owlet throats.
Subject(s): Moon
LIKE a chimney afire
The Moon leapt sudden from under the eaves
Of the fir-brow'd hill;
Smoky at first, then, rising higher,
Rosier, then yellow as leaves
In the months' decay and chill;
And, at last, clear, clear shining
Above clay-hooded mastodons reclining
All down the sloping East.
And now was she the serene Mother of gods,
Or a shield against some god hot from the feast,
Or an altar of psalms and maiden supplications,
Dread shrine of kneeling distant nations,
Or a lamp to him that, staring, nods
Nightly from yon Tower
Hour after weary limping hour;
And now, now none of these,
For an Owl flurrying softly hither and thither
Crosses the Moon's mild face and returns and away
Again in a wailing wild unease,
Plucking at the lovely rondure of silver'd decay,
This one of a million glittering motes
Speckling an infinite bay,
This mother of visions and divinities,
Plucking, plucking from this ancient corruption
Some festering sweet morsel to appease
The clamour of owlet throats.
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FULL MOON by KARLE WILSON BAKER
NO MORE OF THE MOON by MORRIS GILBERT BISHOP
THE DEPARTURE by DENISE LEVERTOV