HOLDING apoise in air My twice-dipped pen, -- for some tense thread of thought Had snapped, -- mine ears were half aware Of passing wheels; eyes saw, but mind saw not, My sun-shot linden. Suddenly, as I stare, Two shifting visions grow and fade unsought: -- Noon-blaze: the broken shade Of ruins strown. Two Tartar lovers sit She gazing on the ground, face turned, afraid; And he, at her. Silence is all his wit. She stoops, picks up a pebble of green jade To toss; they watch its flight, unheeding it. Ages have rolled away; And round the stone, by chance, if chance there be, Sparse soil has caught; a seed, wind-lodged one day, Grown grass; shrubs sprung; at last a tufted tree. Lo! over its snake root yon conquering Bey Trips backward, fighting -- and half Asia free! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON BEING ASKED TO WRITE A POEM AGAINST THE WAR IN VIETNAM by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE HUMBLE-BEE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON TO CHILDREN: 6. BIRDS OF THE AIR by WILLIAM ROSE BENET PSALM 88 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |