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Ingelow, Jean, 1820-1897

"Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II."


Then said he, "Tartis and Deleisonon,
Receive your wages." So their fetters fell;
And they retiring, lauded him, and cried,
"King, reign forever." Then he mourned, "Amen."
And he,--being left alone,--he said: "A light!
I see a light,--a star among the trees,--
An angel." And it drew toward the cave,
But with its sacred feet touched not the grass,
Nor lifted up the lids of its pure eyes,
But hung a span's length from that ground pollute,
At the opening of the cave.
And when he looked,
The dragon cried, "Thou newly-fashioned thing,
Of name unknown, thy scorn becomes thee not.
Doth not thy Master suffer what thine eyes
Thou countest all too clean to open on?"
But still it hovered, and the quietness
Of holy heaven was on the drooping lids;
And not as one that answereth, it let fall
The music from its mouth, but like to one
That doth not hear, or, hearing, doth not heed.
"A message: 'I have heard thee, while remote
I went My rounds among the unfinished stars.


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