England and Yesterday

<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</SPAN></span></p> <h2>VIII.<br/><small>UNDERTONES AT MAGDALEN.</small></h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Fair are the finer creature-sounds; of these</div> <div class="verse">Is Magdalen full: her bees, the while they drop</div> <div class="verse">Susurrant in the garth from weeds atop;</div> <div class="verse">And round the priestless Pulpit, auguries</div> <div class="verse">Of wrens in council from a hundred leas;</div> <div class="verse">And Cherwell fish in laughter fain to stop</div> <div class="verse">The water-plantain’s way; and deer that crop</div> <div class="verse">Delicious herbage under choral trees.</div> <div class="verse">The cry for silver and gold in Christendom</div> <div class="verse">Without, threads not her silence and her dark.</div> <div class="verse">Only against the isolate Tower there break</div> <div class="verse">Low rhythmic rumours of good men to come:</div> <div class="verse">Invasive seas of hushed approach, that make</div> <div class="verse">Memorial music, would the ear but hark.</div> </div></div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />