Sonnet XVI: Who shall Invoke her
Sonnet XVI: Who shall Invoke her
Original Text
Alan Seeger, Poems, introduction by William Archer (London: Constable, 1919), p. 83. PS 3537 E26 1917 ROBA.
1Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest,
2With single rites the common debt to pay?
3On some green headland fronting to the East
4Our fairest boy shall kneel at break of day.
5Naked, uplifting in a laden tray
6New milk and honey and sweet-tinctured wine,
7Not without twigs of clustering apple-spray
8To wreath a garland for Our Lady's shrine.
9The morning planet poised above the sea
10Shall drop sweet influence through her drowsing lid;
11Dew-drenched, his delicate virginity
12Shall scarce disturb the flowers he kneels amid,
13That, waked so lightly, shall lift up their eyes,
14Cushion his knees, and nod between his thighs.
Publication Start Year
1916
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme