The Decline Of Modern Poetry: The Waning Of The Light Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

THE DECLINE OF MODERN POETRY: THE WANING OF THE LIGHT
(to the poet of 'The Dream Of the Rood', and to Christ, the Lord)

I saw the dream rood bartered bargained away
sad sad the day this befell the poem of all poems foremost
glittering reprieved from anguish now but not on earth,
the Jeweled Tree no longer biding, banished was the Word
and thus had poetry become instead the dire dearth, sting
of looking into the mirrors where all wings fled
where the Word had bled since infancy
but no more
and transcribing what was seen then
seas with no shore
in the most menial of ways day labouring
for the gift freely given, granted blotted out
by the candleless seizing power
so had we come to live in the slanted worlds
the selfsame hour
o bitter occlusion then, world without music
the Tree of Light is felled
so light loses everything forgetting its OrigIns
and Poetry,
the springtide of its days, the Pearl of language
hurled and trundled away
so men came to control
the empires of song, the optics, every ray
and made it wrong o the greatest grievous wrong
to praise Thee; to whisper even on the lifting, the lilting,
the lilied breezes Thy Name.
mary angela douglas 16 may 2021