Michael Hamburger
For Ted Hughes (Oct. 29th 1998)
A faint half-moon haloed in haze half-earthly,
The huntress's light, Artemis, delicate as a cat
In her art of killing, self-contained as a cat,
Adored for that, seducer to sacrifice.
But morning's, Apollo's and Aphrodite's
Cruelly too shines on the planters, the breeeders
Of perishing cattle, crops.
Then it is love that hurts, not the coldness.
Both he must serve who was born in high summer,
Compelled to mother the children half-orphaned,
Magnanimous helper, friend.
Uneaten this day of his death
In either light the dark Devonshire apples lie
That from seed I raised on a harsher coast
In remembrance of him and his garden.
Difference filled out the trees,
Hardened, mellowed the fruit to outlast our days.
Page(s) 295
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