To An Unknown Ancestor, Maybe
They do come dropping down to me
On thin treads of eternity
My songs,
And all that unto them belongs;
And who wrote first, that these words come
(Or they come not, and I am dumb,
But start
At some wild star that lights the heart).
I know not, but as dawn unlocks
The night’s old shadowy music box
I seize
A pen as struck by destinies
Far beyond anything I know
Born out of sight ages ago
By some
Chanceling from whose blood I come;
And how did the first rapture light
Upon that maker in his night?
Did he
Know my exact felicity?
What thou did’st then, old miscreant, thou
Hast much to claim or disavow
Alack!
I bear thy soul upon my back
They do come dropping down to me
On thin treads of eternity
My songs,
And all that unto them belongs;
And who wrote first, that these words come
(Or they come not, and I am dumb,
But start
At some wild star that lights the heart).
I know not, but as dawn unlocks
The night’s old shadowy music box
I seize
A pen as struck by destinies
Far beyond anything I know
Born out of sight ages ago
By some
Chanceling from whose blood I come;
And how did the first rapture light
Upon that maker in his night?
Did he
Know my exact felicity?
What thou did’st then, old miscreant, thou
Hast much to claim or disavow
Alack!
I bear thy soul upon my back
10th October 1971
Olive Fraser
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