Jonah wept within the whale, But you have sung these centuries Under the brown banks of the Nile Within a dead, dried crocodile: So fares the learned tale. When they embalmed the sacred beast The Sapphic scroll was white and strong To wrap the spices that were needed, Its song unheard, its word unheeded, By crocodile or priest. The song you sang on Lesbos when Atthis was kind or Mica sad; The startled whale spewed Jonah wide, From out the monster mummified Your roses sing again. Your roses! from the seven strands Of the small harp whereon they grew; The holy beast has had his pleasure, His bellyful of Attic measure, Under the desert sands. Along strange winds your petals blew In singing fragments, roses all. The air is heavy on the Nile, The drowsy gods drowse on the while, As gods are wont to do. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DESPONDING SOUL'S WISH by JOHN BYROM EPITAPH ON AN ARMY OF MERCENARIES by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN A BETTER ANSWER (TO CHLOE JEALOUS) by MATTHEW PRIOR PSALM 88 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |