James Kirkup
Boy with a Mouth-Organ
Lips hardened by winter’s dumb duress
Part on this other, broader smile of youth
That masks deep shyness in its shallow kiss,
While silently behind its music laughs the mouth
Of Pan, and mourns the skull of a severer myth.
The keen and thick-fringed eyes denote
Languor, delight, astonishment or grief,
Interpretors expressive of the heart
That makes the lake dance, and the leaf.
Boy, in cupped hands hold whatever passion time invents:
Fire your tiny forges with gigantic sound, and fill
Heaven with your fierce harmonics! Inspire those instruments,
Acolus, lyre and grove-hung harp, that now miraculously thrill
Our childhood, the toy that trembles to an ancient will!
With acknowledgement to The James Kirkup Collection.
Page(s) 136
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