Coward

The fable of white sea

And thundering air

Is a pictured terror

He would not dare.

The fable of white peaks

Tearing the sky

Is a nightmare of dark dream

He dare not try.

The words of two in love,

Or two in hate,

Forge too strong a poem

To meditate.

All these stories seem

Too fierce by far

To one who hardly dares

Look on a star.

Repelled and frightened, he,

By the ache of the moon-

What will he do when he sees

Death walk at noon?

FUGUE

Structure

21 lines · 2 stanzas