To a Spider

To a Spider

Original Text
W. J. Linton, Heliconundrums (Hamden, Conn.: Appledore, 1892): 61-62.
2Till some hapless fly alight,
3What fore-thoughtful brain and eye
4Fashion'd thy web's nice symmetry?
5In what distant deeps or skies
6Grew those rare geometries?
7In what far-off home of fire
8Forgèd was that slender wire?
9And what cunning, what wise art,
10Stow'd all in so small a part,
11Prompt to weave and to repeat,
12And gave thee such nimble feet?
13Not the stars, through myriad years
14Traveling in appointed spheres,
15Tell more surely of design
16Than that frail web's curious line.
17What the hand and what the brain
18Made thee, and made not in vain?
19Did he smile thy craft to see?
20Did he who made the Fly make thee?
21Spider! Spider! hanging light
22On thy web but seen dew-bright,
23What fore-thoughtful brain and eye
24Framed that fearful symmetry?

Notes

1] A parody of William Blake's "The Tyger." Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
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