Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BELLEROPHON, by GEORGE MEREDITH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Maimed, beggared, grey; seeking an alms; with nod Last Line: Show but a pool of scum for shooting flies. Subject(s): Bellerophon; Mythology; Mythology - Classical | ||||||||
I MAIMED, beggared, grey; seeking an alms; with nod Of palsy doing task of thanks for bread; Upon the stature of a God, He whom the Gods have struck bends low his head. II Weak words he has, that slip the nerveless tongue Deformed, like his great frame: a broken are: Once radiant as the javelin flung Right at the centre breastplate of his mark. III Oft pausing on his white-eyed inward look, Some undermountain narrative he tells, As gapped by Lykian heat the brook Cut from the source that in the upland swells. IV The cottagers who dole him fruit and crust With patient inattention hear him prate: And comes the snow, and comes the dust, Comes the old wanderer, more bent of late. V A crazy beggar grateful for a meal Has ever of himself a world to say. For them he is an ancient wheel Spinning a knotted thread the livelong day. VI He cannot, nor do they, the tale connect; For never singer in the land had been Who him for theme did not reject: Spurned of the hoof that sprang the Hippocrene. VII Albeit a theme of flame to bring them straight The snorting white-winged brother of the wave, They hear him as a thing by fate Cursed in unholy babble to his grave. VIII As men that spied the wings, that heard the snort, Their sires have told; and of a martial prince Bestriding him; and old report Speaks of a monster slain by one long since. IX There is that story of the golden bit By Goddess given to tame the lightning steed: A mortal who could mount, and sit Flying, and up Olympus midway speed. X He rose like the loosed fountain's utmost leap; He played the star at span of heaven right o'er Men's heads: they saw the snowy steep, Saw the winged shoulders: him they saw not more. XI He fell: and says the shattered man, I fell: And sweeps an arm the height an eagle wins; And in his breast a mouthless well Heaves the worn patches of his coat of skins. XII Lo, this is he in whom the surgent springs Of recollections richer than our skies To feed the flow of tuneful strings, Show but a pool of scum for shooting flies. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#11): 1. ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND MEDUSA by MARVIN BELL THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#11): 2. MORE ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND MEDUSA by MARVIN BELL THE BIRTH OF VENUS by HAYDEN CARRUTH LEDA 2: A NOTE ON VISITATIONS by LUCILLE CLIFTON LEDA 3: A PERSONAL NOTE (RE: VISITATIONS) by LUCILLE CLIFTON UNEXPECTED HOLIDAY by STEPHEN DOBYNS DIRGE IN WOODS by GEORGE MEREDITH |
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