Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FABLE, by GEORGE O'NEIL Poet's Biography First Line: I led him on into the frosted wood Last Line: "I'm numb, I'm going home,"" he said." Subject(s): Fables; Unicorns; Winter; Allegories | ||||||||
I LED him on into the frosted wood; Stamping our feet, beneath a larch we stood, Breathing white edifices on the air; And nothing else was moving there. The branches hung as if they had not known A day when any little wind had blown. The snow above our heads wrought wondrously A thousand gargoyles on a tree. Freezing, we waited by the frozen brook. ... "Listen," I said, and hardly dared to look. A drift slid suddenly across the ice, A frigid hawthorne trembled twice. Then, slowly, through the branches, marble-veined, A hoof, a haunch, a heavy shoulder, strained; A head swung down into a glassy heap And smashed it with a sideward sweep. I could not hold my tongue: "You see the horn! That twisted golden bone ... the Unicorn!" I could not hold it back. And as I spoke A splintered universe awoke. The thing was gone. "You saw?" I spun around To read his eyes. He kicked a knotted mound, And all the gargoyles tumbled on his head. "I'm numb, I'm going home," he said. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CYMON AND IPHIGENIA by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO SIGISMONDA AND GUISCARDO by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO THE CHARACTER OF A GOOD PARSON by GEOFFREY CHAUCER THE COCK AND THE FOX, OR THE TALE OF THE NUN'S PRIEST by GEOFFREY CHAUCER TIME, REAL AND IMAGINARY; AN ALLEGORY by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE GLADYS AND HER ISLAND; AN IMPERFECT TALE WITH DOUBTFUL MORAL by JEAN INGELOW THE WOLF AND THE DOG by JEAN DE LA FONTAINE |
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