Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SNAIL'S DERBY, by EUGENE JACOB LEE-HAMILTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SNAIL'S DERBY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Once, in this tuscan garden, noon's huge ball
Last Line: Wait but death's night; and, lo, the great ball lowers.
Subject(s): Racing; Snails


Once, in this Tuscan garden, Noon's huge ball
So slowly crossed the sky above my head,
As I lay idle on my dull wheeled bed,
That, sick of Day's inexorable crawl,

I set some snails a-racing on the wall --
With their striped shells upon their backs, instead
Of motley jockeys -- black, white, yellow, red;
And watched them till the twilight's tardy fall.

And such my life, as years go one by one:
A garden where I lie beyond the flowers,
And where the snails outrace the creeping sun.

For me there are no pinions to the hours;
Compared with them, the snails like racers run:
Wait but Death's night; and, lo, the great ball lowers.





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