All entries for Thursday 17 May 2007
May 17, 2007
Gwyneth Lewis: ‘Bayeux Tapestry’
King William conquered the British Isles
by griffin and dragon with knots in their tails:
God’s order in the borders of time –
centaurs rampant and leopards tame
with the lambs they slaughtered and the crane
kind to the wolf that killed it. Now a wife
opens her arm in a garden, starts a gale
that impregnates the Normans’ sails
and brings them in force to Pevensey.
Now the peacock and the harpie cry
out so Saxons die and horses fall
while, in the border, ornament is all
and trees are rooted in history
hold birds more real than the sights they see
until the wyverns are put to rout
by human bodies that blot the border out.
17 May 2007 14:13
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Tags: Favourite Poems
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