Page:Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems (IA tristramoflyonesswinrich).pdf/244

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

226

QUIA NOMINOR LEO.

I.

What part is left thee, lion? Ravenous beast,

Which hadst the world for pasture, and for scope
And compass of thine homicidal hope
The kingdom of the spirit of man, the feast
Of souls subdued from west to sunless east,
From blackening north to bloodred south aslope,
All servile; earth for footcloth of the pope,
And heaven for chancel-ceiling of the priest;
Thou that hadst earth by right of rack and rod,
Thou that hadst Rome because thy name was God,
And by thy creed’s gift heaven wherein to dwell;
Heaven laughs with all his light and might above
That earth has cast thee out of faith and love;
Thy part is but the hollow dream of hell.