THE willow catkins fall on the muddy pool Churned up anew by cows who came to cool: And under shoal the sticklebacks, to whom The infant stream is like the whale's searoom, Or Amazon to a cayman; wondering there, They rise and thrilling sip that strange sharp Air. The plunging stone down from the dwarf bridge thrown Is Zeus's bolt -- Zeus shambles whistling on, And from their puny caverns they are seen Returning where the high god's wrath has been. Meantime a god indeed with fierce desire Drinks of their lessening waters, tongued with fire; He all along the willows' silver line Diminishes the pools that pleased the kine, And in a day will strew with tiny bones This universe dried into sands and stones. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CORTEGE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON GONE by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE LINES WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM AT ELBINGERODE, IN HARTZ FOREST by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE INQUEST by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES KEATS; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW TELLING THE BEES (A COLONIAL CUSTOM) by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE |