Paul Muldoon - Socrates lyrics

While one by one the rest of the cavaclade Draw level With her in the glade. Her sisters, Edith Southey and Mary Lovell, Are astride a strawberry roan. Their man-servant, Shad, Is driving a spanking-new, iron- Shod Wagon in which Lovell himself is laid. Three days ago, a wood-sprite Worried his shoulder-blade. The wound has begun to suppurate. Messrs Allen, Burnett, Le Grice and Favell Dismount and pitch The first of several Bell-tents. A pure-white spaniel b**h Runs rings around them. Cinnamond builds A fire, helps Lovell to the shelter of a cairn Of stones and applies another poultice Of hemlock-bark and acorns. A thrum of hooves. If Southey is to Bucephalus As a flame is to its wick Then Southey is a flame. He clutches a small, already-battered valise, A sheaf of quills, a quire of vellum. He cancels everything in his wake.