Hornets

Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)



How strangely like a churchyard skull
The thing that's there amongst the leaves!

A Hornets' nest; but stir the branch
And they'll be round your head and ears!

So wary ana so weaponed,
How do they not possess the wold?

Their lives a watch, their act a doom,
Of their own terrors they must die!

Livid, uneyed, articulate,
How like a skull their nest they make!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

21 sec read
360

Quick analysis:

Scheme XX XX AA XA AX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 357
Words 68
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 2

Padraic Colum

Padraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. more…

All Padraic Colum poems | Padraic Colum Books

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