‘Tartary’ by Walter de la Mare
If I were a Tartar lord, just me,
I would have a throne of gold,
An ivory bed (or two maybe?)
And some tigers bold as bold;
They’d roar in the forests wild by
night
And my peacocks strut all day
Around mirrored pools,
sun-polished, bright,
Where turning fishes play.
If I were a Tartar lord, you’d
see,
I’d have trumpets lifting high;
And lamps in the dusk would
welcome me,
Lighting up the evening sky,
With colours that seem to me to
say
Sweet honey and wine...and ease;
Soft mandolins, flutes and harps
would play
And their tunes be touched with
peace.
‘The Hag’ by Robert Herrick
She binds her broom between her
knees
to mount with Lucifer again;
she rides the fearful night with
ease
through clouds of pain, through
beating rain...
‘Casabianca’ by Felicia Hemans
Among the corpses in that burning
hell
Obedient to the last he stood
alone;
The raking flames reeled down the
decks; he fell
(“Oh, father, answer me...”) as
still as stone...
(1988?)
