ON POETRY

Ere lightning struck the crumbling hold

Ere Assyrian squall

Came down like wolves upon the fold

Ere did we see the Fall…

We'd seen on these now barren plains

This realm before our eyes

We'd heard Calliopean lyre's strains

And looked on Paradise

Do you remember now? Those days…

An age ago it seems

Ere faded with the fading rays

The Path of sunlit dreams

Sometime we walked in this fair land

Sometime we'll walk again

Some day, before rhyme's flaming brand

Free verse shall meet its bane

Dark night on swift wings shall be flown

Beacons of dawn shall burn

The Orb which once in splendour shone

Shall to the sky return

Rhyme will be wreathed in laurel fair

Metre supreme will reign

And beauteous form, pure and austere

From dust shall rise again

The muse from the Empyrean streams

The minstrel's broken soul

Will on the Path of sunlit dreams

With healing touch make whole

And we shall see them live again

Those fabled bards of old

Reborn in lyre's golden strains

Enthroned, and crowned in gold…