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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A WAYSIDE CROSS by THOMAS SAMUEL JONES JR.

First Line: AUGUST WITH SOMBRE DOOMS OLD SAGAS WAIL
Last Line: IN MYSTIC RUNES UPON A WAYSIDE CROSS.
Subject(s): ALPHABETS; SLAVERY; SERFS;
August with sombre dooms old sagas wail
Of life blown as an anvil's leaping spark
To flame and fade into the winter dark,
Alike with thrall or thane in ambered mail;
Yet though the wild seas roared beneath the gale,
A serf who wondered at the April lark
And blossoms springing from the frozen bark,
Found Love within a lonely orchard-vale.
But where white branches quickened in the sun,
Clothed with their flowers he saw the Rood-Tree gleam
And laid his head against Its dewy moss:
Shy deer stole from the forest one by one
To watch the Saxon harper carve his dream
In mystic runes upon a wayside cross.



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