England and Yesterday

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</SPAN></span> <h2>ATHASSEL ABBEY.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Folly and Time have fashioned</div> <div class="verse">Of thee a songless reed;</div> <div class="verse">O not-of-earth-impassioned!</div> <div class="verse">Thy music’s mute indeed.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Red from the chantry crannies</div> <div class="verse">The orchids burn and swing,</div> <div class="verse">And where the arch began is</div> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</SPAN></span>Rest for a raven’s wing;</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And up the dinted column</div> <div class="verse">Quick tails of squirrels wave,</div> <div class="verse">And black, prodigious, solemn,</div> <div class="verse">A forest fills the nave.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Still faith fuller, still faster,</div> <div class="verse">To ruin give thy heart:</div> <div class="verse">Perfect before the Master</div> <div class="verse">Aye as thou wert, thou art.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But I am wind that passes</div> <div class="verse">In ignorance and tears,</div> <div class="verse">Uplifted from the grasses,</div> <div class="verse">Blown to the void of years,</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Blown to the void, yet sighing</div> <div class="verse">In thee to merge and cease,</div> <div class="verse">Last breath of beauty’s dying,</div> <div class="verse">Of sanctity, of peace!</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Though use nor place forever</div> <div class="verse">Unto my soul befall,</div> <div class="verse">By no belovèd river</div> <div class="verse">Set in a saintly wall,</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Do thou by builders given</div> <div class="verse">Speech of the dumb to be,</div> <div class="verse">Beneath thine open heaven,</div> <div class="verse">Athassel! pray for me.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />