LYRICS
43
What immeasurable child
Shall your burning have beguiled
Before another picks you dry
And puffs your promise down the sky.
In what city shall that be·
And in what strange vicinity.
(Hark my friend we've had our day,
School is out, they're on their way.)
Gods snub each other on our back stairs
The ancient time contemned as snares.
Our galaxy, so runs the hope,
Is mirror for a telescope.
Curved brightness is a beveled jewel
Examining minute renewal.
All things undreamt, one atom's core.
One spark of sand, its endless shore.
There thrive fish the dark sea down
Unsuspicious of our town.
We each are lumps in a same leaven
And Friday's print amazes heaven.
11.
Education of the Prince.
He must strike down his father's cedar shadow:
Sever his mother's terrible and sorrowing mouth:
Abandon, under their stone labels in the charted meadow
His tired friends, and start the journey south.
Follow the man on the hill with the fire on his back:
Outbrave the monstrous lady of the woods:
Speak dialects, snap twigs deceptively, destroy his name:
He must make the dark journey under the hollow sea.
JAMES AGEE
