AS I lay dreaming, open-eyed, With some one sitting at my side, I saw a thing about to fly Into my face, where it would lie; For just above my head there stood A smiling hawk as red as blood. On which the bird, whose quiet nest Has always been in my left breast, Seeing that red hawk hovering there, And smiling with such deadly care -- Flew fascinated to my throat, And there it moaned a feeble note. I saw that hawk, so red, and still, And closed my eyes -- it had its will: For, uttering one triumphant croon, It pounced with sudden impulse down; And there I lay, no power to move, To let it kiss or bite its love. But in those birds -- Ah, it was strange -- There came at last this other change: That fascinated bird of mine Worried the hawk and made it whine; The hawk cried feebly -- "Oh dear, oh! Greedy-in-love, leave go! Leave go!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CHILTERNS by RUPERT BROOKE EPITAPH (ON A COMMONPLACE PERSON WHO DIED IN BED) by AMY LEVY CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE WORKHOUSE by GEORGE ROBERT SIMS EPITAPH by MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU THE NEW JERUSALEM by AUGUSTINE CONSTANTINOPLE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD RECOLLECTIONS by BERNARD BARTON CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 9. OF HUMILITY by WILLIAM BASSE |