10.06.2007, 13:45
Alma Mater
He knocked, and I beheld him at the door –
A vision for the gods to verify.
“What battered ancientry is this,” thought I,
“And when, if ever, did we meet before?”
But ask him as I might, I got no more
For answer than a moaning and a cry:
Too late to parley, but in time to die,
He staggered, and lay sharpeless on the floor.
When had I known him? And what brought him here?
Love, warning, malediction, hunger, fear?
Surly I never thwarted such as he? –
Again, what soiled obscurity was this:
Out of what scum, and up from what abyss,
Had they arrived – these rags of memory?
He knocked, and I beheld him at the door –
A vision for the gods to verify.
“What battered ancientry is this,” thought I,
“And when, if ever, did we meet before?”
But ask him as I might, I got no more
For answer than a moaning and a cry:
Too late to parley, but in time to die,
He staggered, and lay sharpeless on the floor.
When had I known him? And what brought him here?
Love, warning, malediction, hunger, fear?
Surly I never thwarted such as he? –
Again, what soiled obscurity was this:
Out of what scum, and up from what abyss,
Had they arrived – these rags of memory?