Two Poems

EFFACEMENTS

The steady cedars levelling the shade
Bend in the water of each diamond pane.
Furred cusp and sill: other effacements made
Where the armorial glass in bronze and grain
    Stiffens a lily on the clouded sun.
    The lozenge hatchments of the porch floor run

Far out to grass. The grave Palladians
Have gone to seed, long genealogies
Dissolve beneath their wet and gentry stones;
The leaves lie shaken from the family trees.
    As kneeling putti, children from the Hall
    Are playing marbles on the mildewed wall.

The letters and the memoirs knew His will;
All Spring contracted to the one hushed room.
White swelling grew, he passed the cup, lay still;
...