Old Mortality
2008; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 116; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/sew.0.0014
ISSN1934-421X
Autores Tópico(s)Health and Conflict Studies
ResumoOld Mortality John Rees Moore (bio) William Blake O holy flower, holy flesh, Hold your sway over all the earth, Keep the springs of life ever fresh, Carefully nourish every birth. Though their eyes flame bright at night And hungry jaws may drip with blood Know the jungle beasts are right, Beasts of prey survived the flood. See each boy and girl in white Enjoy their innocence in play, All too soon the serpent comes Who turns to woe all their delight. Some grow in mansions, some die in slums. All find their due on Judgment Day. Baudelaire The old hag, a corpse before she’s dead, At least that’s the way she smells, unable to move Out of her own filth. He views her with dread And a sense of horrid guilt. What does she prove? Cast aside by the men who pronged her end to end, He remembers how this Sylvia in her youth was once A graceful lissome lass who could dance and bend Her body like an acrobat. Oh, yes, what a dunce He was! In those days he gorged on pleasure like A giant growling and belching with open maw, A ferocious creature, cruel and ready to strike Any rival, ignorant of all custom and law. He knows what hell awaits his damnèd soul— For even now he feels the flames as the devil calls the roll! [End Page 196] Proust Mother, please, my goodnight kiss This heavy dark is a lonesome thing Though I may dream that I am king And for a little time be drowned in bliss. When I grow up I’ll often think of this: Watching the lissome girls in a ring As they dance and play and sometimes sing While the tide gives its expiring hiss. How often you will feel heartbreaking dis- Illusion that in its wake all joy must bring. Loss rides on the back of everything And all your dearest ones you’re doomed to miss. Though your art can mock at bent old age It holds death at bay on every page. [End Page 197] John Rees Moore John Rees Moore, who taught at Hollins College and edited the Hollins Critic for many years, is living in Roanoke in retirement. Copyright © 2008 University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, 37383
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