Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN OLD FISH POND, by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN OLD FISH POND, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Green growths of mosses drop and bead
Last Line: The wood-birds dip and drink.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin
Subject(s): Lakes; Pools; Ponds


GREEN growths of mosses drop and bead
Around the granite brink;
And 'twixt the isles of water-weed
The wood-birds dip and drink.

Slow efts about the edges sleep;
Swift-darting water-flies
Shoot on the surface; down the deep
Fast-following bubbles rise.

Look down. What groves that scarcely sway!
What 'wood obscure,' profound!
What jungle! -- where some beast of prey
Might choose his vantage-ground!

Who knows what lurks beneath the tide? --
Who knows what tale? Belike,
Those 'antres vast' and shadows hide
Some patriarchal Pike; --

Some tough old tyrant, wrinkle-jawed,
To whom the sky, the earth,
Have but for aim to look on awed
And see him wax in girth; --

Hard ruler there by right of might;
An ageless Autocrat,
Whose 'good old rule' is 'Appetite,
And subjects fresh and fat;' --

While they -- poor souls! -- in wan despair
Still watch for signs in him;
And dying, hand from heir to heir
The day undawned and dim,

When the pond's terror too must go;
Or creeping in by stealth,
Some bolder brood, with common blow,
Shall found a Commonwealth.

Or say, -- perchance the liker this! --
That these themselves are gone;
That Amurath in minimis, --
Still hungry, -- lingers on,

With dwindling trunk and wolfish jaw
Revolving sullen things,
But most the blind unequal law
That rules the food of Kings; --

The blot that makes the cosmic All
A mere time-honoured cheat; --
That bids the Great to eat the Small,
Yet lack the Small to eat!

Who knows! Meanwhile the mosses bead
Around the granite brink;
And 'twixt the isles of water-weed
The wood-birds dip and drink.




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