Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1154

 ALFRED NOYES

Strive with Carrara, fight With Parian, till there steal

To light Apollo's pure profile.

Set the great lucid form Free from its marble tomb

To storm The heights of death and doom.

Take up the sculptor's tool' Recall the gods that die

To rule In Parian o'er the sky.

��HERBERT EDWARD PALMER

947 Ishmael

'And God was with the lad, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer? GENESIS xxi. 20.

��A^JD Ishmael crouch'd beside a crackling briar Blinded with sand, and madden'd by his thirst, A derelict, though he knew not why accursed. And lo' One saw, and strung the dissonant lyre, Made firm his bow unto the arrow's spire, And gave him dates and wine. Then at the first Flushings of dawn Ishmael arose, and burst To triumphing freedom, ran, and eased desire.

His domain was the desert. None tamed him. None bought nor sold his spirit, though his hand Dripp'd red against the dawn and sunset stain.

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