A crossbow old, with lathe and gaffle grim,
And carven stock, hung in a castle hall—
Mere bricabrac, but on the distance dim
It sketched De Jourdan’s quarrel, Richard’s fall.
A curious ballad written by Villon
(The sweet old thief)—the page was wan and sere;
But genius had set a glow thereon
Like memory’s flush on snows that fell last year.
A broken plow beside a hedgerow flung
Amid the flowering weeds of early June,
Told of poor Burns, who from the furrow sung
The “Banks of Ayr” and “Braes o’ Bonnie Doon.”
A fossil skeleton, delicate and rare,
A bird (held fast in rock for ages long)
Freed by the quarrymen. I heard the air
Eons ago thrill to its morning song!
A southern zittern found at Avignon;
Broken its keys with pearls and opals set;
Its strings were rust, its wreath
(Maurice Thompson)
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Based on Topics: Birds Poems, Disagreement & Quarelling PoemsBased on Keywords: sketched, opals, eons, lathe, villon, hall-, avignon, crossbow, jourdan, zittern, thief-