THE willow catkins fall on the muddy pool Churned up anew by cows who came to cool: And under shoal the sticklebacks, to whom The infant stream is like the whale's searoom, Or Amazon to a cayman; wondering there, They rise and thrilling sip that strange sharp Air. The plunging stone down from the dwarf bridge thrown Is Zeus's bolt -- Zeus shambles whistling on, And from their puny caverns they are seen Returning where the high god's wrath has been. Meantime a god indeed with fierce desire Drinks of their lessening waters, tongued with fire; He all along the willows' silver line Diminishes the pools that pleased the kine, And in a day will strew with tiny bones This universe dried into sands and stones. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IF HE SHOULD COME by EDWIN MARKHAM THE GREAT RACE PASSES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE FIRST VOYAGE OF JOHN CABOT [1497] by KATHARINE LEE BATES WHY I AM A LIBERAL by ROBERT BROWNING GOOD FRIDAY, 1613. RIDING WESTWARD by JOHN DONNE THE WIDOW AT WINDSOR by RUDYARD KIPLING PROMETHEUS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON [APRIL 6, 1862] by KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD |