Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LUBBERLU, by JOHN COWPER POWYS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LUBBERLU, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Green were her eyes, - yellow were her eyes
Last Line: Over the hills and away.
Subject(s): Bible; Candles; Churches; Eyes; Jesus Christ; Lips; Cathedrals


"Green were her eyes, -- yellow were her eyes --
Her eyes were like withered sedge!"
-- "This is holy Mass and the hour flies
And there is red in the church-yard hedge.

"Raise me aloft my taper's flame,
Light me my candles three,
For I must call on the Baby's name
Who is born to young Mary!" --

"O father, I see a blood-red streak
In the reeds where first I caught her --
And I hear a cry makes my heart weak --
And turns my bones to water.

"The marsh-bittern and lone curlew
That cry comes not from them --"
-- "Bring me bread and wine my Lubberlu,
And hold my vestments' hem!

"The candles burn -- The oxen kneel.
Boy, bring me my holy book --
Born is the King of Israel!"
-- "Oh father, my father, look!

"She is pressing her face 'gainst the window-pane,
Where the saints stare in a row
And her lips are red with the morning's stain
And her cheeks are white like snow!" --

-- "'Tis Christmas morn and the mass unsung
For the Baby of young Mary!" --
But the idiot-boy from his side had sprung.
At the window prone was he.

And the oxen knelt in their frozen shed
And the sheep in their hurdled pen;
But Lubberlu lay stark and dead,
He never will come again.

They sign his breast and they sign his brow
With the cross to which they pray --
But two lost souls are flying now
Over the reeds and over the snow,
Over the hills and away.





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