Ancient Of Days



It's Epsom but could pass for Epping,
New Forest or Dumbarton Wood.
  
There's ivy of the thickest
English sort not commonly
found in America; sprigs
growing across open ground
mantling it.
  
Shiny to the eye, soft encircling
the touch, I am reminded of blue waters,
green grass Blake's Ancient of Days:
an old man's beard stepping from the trees,
Spanish Moss so unearthly it covers a
southern forest.
  
There are tendrils in herbal potions of unbroken lips that move
across both dew and clover.
  
I see Druids reciting psalms, weaving ivy along garlands
of oak, the incantation set before a British lake -
briar baskets carrying the trusting dead;
food offerings transversing the waters.
  
The ivy calls to mind all these things,
just a sprig held tightly yet aromatic beyond imagining,
my timorous English settlers seen thru a spate of leaves
clutching their holly on Roanoke island.
  
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on April 03, 2023

46 sec read
35

Quick analysis:

Scheme AX XXBXX ABBBXX XX BXXB BABX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 870
Words 152
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 2, 5, 6, 2, 4, 4

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    "Ancient Of Days" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/56385/ancient-of-days>.

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