Man Against the Sky: A Book of Poems

<h2> Fragment </h2> <p>Faint white pillars that seem to fade<br/> As you look from here are the first one sees<br/> Of his house where it hides and dies in a shade<br/> Of beeches and oaks and hickory trees.<br/> Now many a man, given woods like these,<br/> And a house like that, and the Briony gold,<br/> Would have said, "There are still some gods to please,<br/> And houses are built without hands, we're told."<br/> <br/> There are the pillars, and all gone gray.<br/> Briony's hair went white. You may see<br/> Where the garden was if you come this way.<br/> That sun-dial scared him, he said to me;<br/> "Sooner or later they strike," said he,<br/> And he never got that from the books he read.<br/> Others are flourishing, worse than he,<br/> But he knew too much for the life he led.<br/> <br/> And who knows all knows everything<br/> That a patient ghost at last retrieves;<br/> There's more to be known of his harvesting<br/> When Time the thresher unbinds the sheaves;<br/> And there's more to be heard than a wind that grieves<br/> For Briony now in this ageless oak,<br/> Driving the first of its withered leaves<br/> Over the stones where the fountain broke.<br/></p> <p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"></SPAN></p> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />