The Eye and Ear
The Eye and Ear
Original Text
Jones Very, Poems and Essays (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1888): 129. Internet Archive
1Thou readest, but each lettered word can give
2 Thee but the sound that thou first gave to it;
3 Thou lookest on the page, things move and live
4 In light thine eye and thine alone has lit;
5 Ears are there yet unstopped, and eyes unclosed,
6 That see and hear as in one common day,
7 When they which present see have long reposed,
8 And he who hears has mouldered too to clay;
9 These ever see and hear; they are in Him,
10 Who speaks, and all is light; how dark before!
11 Each object throws aside its mantle dim,
12 That hid the starry robe that once it wore;
13 And shines full-born disclosing all that is,
14 Itself by all things seen and owned as His.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2012
Rhyme
Form