Tuesday, September 24, 2013
The British Museum
St. John Lucas (1879–1934), "Villanelle of the British Museum," Poems (Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., Ltd., 1904), pp. 37-38:
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O gods who crowned the Parthenon
Of Pheidias and Pericles,
How is your ancient glory gone!
Our blinkard antiquaries con
Your grand Panathenaic frieze,
O Gods who crowned the Parthenon!
The cultured maid, the painful Don,
Unblasted, mete your nose and knees.
How is your ancient glory gone!
In troops of twenty gaze thereon
Folk nasal-voiced from over-seas,
O Gods who crowned the Parthenon!
The yawning girl-school eddies on;
The lovers giggle gallantries.
How is your ancient glory gone!
Barbarians fell at Marathon;
Have you no bolts for such as these?
O Gods who crowned the Parthenon,
How is your ancient glory gone!
