Heron



In the Kelvin Gorge

The river platters past, and sings

Its gentle, winding tale of centuries
Long before we things

Of dust and shadow

Trailed blasphemous feet

Upon the blessed earth–

And, long after we are gone,

Of ages yet to come.
While on its banks,

Proclaiming to the breeze

Their wafted rustle of thanksgiving

To Him whose love

And arm and prescient forge

Gave them, and us, our living,

Cascade the leaves of ancient willow-trees.
Sweet chatter of the choir

Of rails and thrushes,

Wagtails, on the slopes above,

Flushes lordly sky,

Makes here, in cheerful harmony

A polyphonic psalm.
But stop, look!

There on a rock

Amid the stream, unstinting
Grey-wing, still, so infinitely still,
In predatory silence

Feigning sleep,

He will keep

His ruthless countenance

With sharp and glinting, fell

And ever-watchful, beady eye,
Ever ready,

Standing, hungry, sentinel.
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Submitted by LindsayGeorge on May 01, 2021

Modified by LindsayGeorge on May 01, 2021

45 sec read
11

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBDEFGHICJKAJCLMKNOPQRJSTUUTVNOW
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 917
Words 151
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 34

Lindsay G H Hall

Ancient schoolmaster. Prone to write Latin poems. Indigestion with most modern crap, give me Virgil, Milton, Keats, Tennyson. more…

All Lindsay G H Hall poems | Lindsay G H Hall Books

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