Poems By Arjava

M.

"I saw the Queen two sun downs back

File with her shadow in the evening light

That filled the outer courtyard."

P.

" She filed with more than that, Methymnaeus ;

With half-dissolving memories of Troy,

Converging whispers of far-off renown,

A shadowy splendour that her ruined frame

Lets faintly through."

N.

" But she is lame, dim-sighted,

And half oblivious of this changing show."

M.

" She is not very sad or very gay."

P.

" But when she speaks, a brooding hush will come

And gaiety and sadness seem alike."

M.

" So many singers breathe her name in song,

Her beauty is the shrine of endless dream."

P.

" Music and myth and shaped loveliness

Have so prevailed and wrought upon her being,

Her body's death will be a faint, far-off,

Most legendary thing."

N.

" She is but creaking bones and shrivelled hair

And soon these will be ashes on the ground."

N.

" The ground transmuted to a shining floor

For dream-high tower with bright walls of song.

Where gleam the trophies taken in wars with Time."