#English #XXCentury
What could be dafter Than John Skelton’s laughter? What sound more tenderly Than his pretty poetry? So where to rank old Skelton?
Love is universal migraine, A bright stain on the vision Blotting out reason. Symptoms of true love Are leanness, jealousy,
I now delight In spite Of the might And the right Of classic tradition,
We looked, we loved, and therewith… Death became terrible to you and m… By love we disenthralled our natur… From every comfortable philosopher Or tall, grey doctor of divinity:
Cherries of the night are riper Than the cherries pluckt at noon Gather to your fairy piper When he pipes his magic tune: Merry, merry,
He, of his gentleness, Thirsting and hungering Walked in the Wilderness; Soft words of grace he spoke Unto lost desert—folk
Why have such scores of lovely, gi… Married impossible men? Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled… And missionary endeavour, nine tim… Repeat 'impossible men’: not merel…
Mother: What’s in that cupboard,… Mary: Which cupboard, mother dear… Mother: The cupboard of red mahog… With handles shining clear. Mary: That cupboard, dearest moth…
Not to sleep all the night long, f… Counting no sheep and careless of… Welcoming the dawn confabulation Of birch, her children, who discus… Fanciful details of the promised c…
One moonlit night a ship drove in, A ghost ship from the west, Drifting with bare mast and lone t… Like a mermaid drest In long green weed and barnacles:
Pale at first and cold, Like wizard’s lily—bloom Conjured from the gloom, Like torch of glow—worm seen Through grasses shining green
‘But that was nothing to what thin… From the sea—caves of Criccieth y… ‘What were they? Mermaids? Dragon… ‘Nothing at all of any things like… ‘What were they, then?’
She, then, like snow in a dark nig… Fell secretly. And the world wake… With dazzling of the drowsy eye, So that some muttered 'Too much l… And drew the curtains close.
White flabbiness goes brown and le… Dumpling arms are now brass bars, They’ve learnt to suffer and live… And to think below the stars. They’ve steeled a tender, girlish…
The silent shepherdess, She of my vows, Here with me exchanging love Under dim boughs. Shines on our mysteries
