THE LEOPARD
Leopard! Leopard! spurning flight
Will you vanish in the night?
What mortal weapon hand or spree
Would end thy fearful symmetry?
Leopard! Leopard! spurning flight
Will you vanish in the night?
What mortal weapon hand or spree
Would end thy fearful symmetry?
Not so distant wait the flies
To watch the fire leave your eyes.
On what fell wings do the descend
Your flesh and sinew then to rend?
And you molder and depart
As humanity lays waste your heart.
And when thy heart shall cease to beat
What tear shed mourns thee complete?
What the hammer? What the chain?
Felled trees so cover’s sought in vain?
What the building, what the rasp
Dare spell your glory’s end at last?
When the stars fall from their spheres
They’ll fill the darkness with their tears.
Who will frown your plight to see?
No lamb e’er existed to remake thee.
Leopard! Leopard! Spurning flight
Will you vanish in the night?
What mortal weapon hand or spree
Would end thy fearful symmetry?