Loving the Old Ones

William Wordsworth



LOVING THE OLD ONES

Have you given any thanks to the old poets lately?
The ones who built vowel-houses in England-
Cynewulf out in the cow stall singing,
Swift with his beak like a baby owl.

It's good to bless any country where Wordsworth
Could wander around in his damp wool suit,
Listening like Statius to the low-voiced sheep,
And John Donne hiding his girlfriends in the old prayers.

Hardy is out in the rain, reading gravestones Again,
Chaucer loving the Wife of Bath,
Marlowe baking his sweet pancakes of sound,
And William Blake longing for Jerusalem.


Robert Bly

Posted over on A Prairie Home Companion