Moonlight

Victoria Sackville-West 1862 (Paris) – 1936 (Roedean, Sussex)



What time the meanest brick and stone
Take on a beauty not their own,
And past the flaw of builded wood
Shines the intention whole and good,
And all the little homes of man
Rise to a dimmer, nobler span;
When colour's absence gives escape
To the deeper spirit of the shape,

-- Then earth's great architecture swells
Among her mountains and her fells
Under the moon to amplitude
Massive and primitive and rude:

-- Then do the clouds like silver flags
Stream out above the tattered crags,
And black and silver all the coast
Marshalls its hunched and rocky host,
And headlands striding sombrely
Buttress the land against the sea,
-- The darkened land, the brightening wave --
And moonlight slants through Merlin's cave.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 11, 2023

39 sec read
149

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDD EEFF XEGGXXHH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 705
Words 127
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 4, 8

Victoria Sackville-West

Victoria Josefa Dolores Catalina Sackville-West, Lady Sackville married her first cousin Lionel Edward Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville. Their daughter was the writer, poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West. more…

All Victoria Sackville-West poems | Victoria Sackville-West Books

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