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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE MOSQUE AT EPHESUS, by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY Poet's Biography First Line: A gray shell with a ruined tower Last Line: White on the mouldering tower. Subject(s): Decay; Ruins; Stones; Rot; Decadence; Granite; Rocks | |||
A GRAY shell with a ruined tower Whereon the wild stork sees On the Moor's arch the wind-sown flower, Within, the aged trees; Tranquil decay, and silence meet To strew round old belief, While every mellowing stone grows sweet With time's unconscious grief! Once as on Salisbury's moor I lay Where the great stones remain, I felt my very soul grow gray And sink into the plain; A solitary lark climbed up In the dark sunset sky, And, singing, filled from heaven the cup I drink of till I die. Now world-wide pours the music rare Within my listening mind; I hear the lark's song everywhere That I the gray stone find; Thy lovely Mosque, O Ephesus, Reverts to nature's plan; But dying gods bequeath to us Their deathless faith in man. I hear the song at Stonehenge heard Abolishing gray death; Again the rapture of the bird Is singing in my breath; It rises in my heart of hearts And music floods my brain -- Old Mosque, o'er thee it fluttering starts, And soars, and comes again. Ye antique trees, grow fresh and green Within the roofless nave! The song that cleaves your heaven unseen Shall nest upon my grave; And while it hovers o'er my breast Yon arch shall break to flower, And the wild stork shall cap his nest White on the mouldering tower. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STONE'S SECRET by MARGARET AVISON CONTRA MORTEM: THE STONE by HAYDEN CARRUTH NAMING FOR LOVE by HAYDEN CARRUTH OF THE STONES OF THE PLACE by ROBERT FROST THE EYE IN THE ROCK by JOHN HAINES THE HEAD ON THE TABLE by JOHN HAINES AT GIBRALTAR by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY |
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