GREEN growths of mosses drop and bead Around the granite brink; And 'twixt the isles of water-weed The wood-birds dip and drink. Slow efts about the edges sleep; Swift-darting water-flies Shoot on the surface; down the deep Fast-following bubbles rise. Look down. What groves that scarcely sway! What 'wood obscure,' profound! What jungle! -- where some beast of prey Might choose his vantage-ground! Who knows what lurks beneath the tide? -- Who knows what tale? Belike, Those 'antres vast' and shadows hide Some patriarchal Pike; -- Some tough old tyrant, wrinkle-jawed, To whom the sky, the earth, Have but for aim to look on awed And see him wax in girth; -- Hard ruler there by right of might; An ageless Autocrat, Whose 'good old rule' is 'Appetite, And subjects fresh and fat;' -- While they -- poor souls! -- in wan despair Still watch for signs in him; And dying, hand from heir to heir The day undawned and dim, When the pond's terror too must go; Or creeping in by stealth, Some bolder brood, with common blow, Shall found a Commonwealth. Or say, -- perchance the liker this! -- That these themselves are gone; That Amurath in minimis, -- Still hungry, -- lingers on, With dwindling trunk and wolfish jaw Revolving sullen things, But most the blind unequal law That rules the food of Kings; -- The blot that makes the cosmic All A mere time-honoured cheat; -- That bids the Great to eat the Small, Yet lack the Small to eat! Who knows! Meanwhile the mosses bead Around the granite brink; And 'twixt the isles of water-weed The wood-birds dip and drink. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A BUTTERFLY (1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH MONOTONOUS VARIETY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 4. AFFECTED INDIFFERENCE by MARK AKENSIDE THE VIGILANTES by MARGARET ELIZA ASHMUN THE LEADY'S TOWER by WILLIAM BARNES |