Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN THE MARSHES, by ARTHUR GLYN PRYS-JONES


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE MARSHES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We do not know in the marsh
Last Line: And the waters grey with fear.
Subject(s): Death; Grief; Swamps; Wales; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness; Bogs; Fens; Marshes; Welshmen; Welshwomen


I

WE do not know in the marsh
What dim things hover and come
Down from the yellow moon
To the lure of the witch's drum:
Deep in the bulrush-beds
The thin reeds quake all day
For what they see in the dark ...
They quake ... but they cannot say.

II

There at the turn of the tide
Deep in the oozy mud
Are the hands of men who died
When the marshes sank in flood:
And the marshmen hear their throes
In the winds each gusty day,
But only the witch-wife knows
Why the mud-banks hold their prey.

III

When the dark has sealed the West
The marsh is loud with feet
That move in old unrest ...
And wings that whir and beat
Hover over the sands
From year to desolate year,
And even the trees are gnarled with pain
And the waters grey with fear.





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