Duncan Campbell Scott - Permanence

Set within a desert lone, <br />Circled by an arid sea, <br />Stands a figure carved in stone, <br />Where a fountain used to be. <br /> <br />Two abraded, pleading hands <br />Held below a shapeless mouth, <br />Human-like the fragment stands, <br />Tortured by perpetual drouth. <br /> <br />Once the form was drenched with spray, <br />Deluged with the rainbow flushes; <br />Surplus water dashed away <br />To the lotus and the rushes. <br /> <br />Time was clothed in rippling fashion,. <br />Opulence of light and air, <br />Beauty changing into passion <br />Every hour and everywhere. <br /> <br />And the yearning of that race <br />Was for something deep and tender, <br />Life replete with power, with grace, <br />Touched with vision and with splendour. <br /> <br />Now no rain dissolves and cools, <br />Dew is even as a dream, <br />The enticing far-off pools <br />In a mirage only seem. <br /> <br />All the traces that remain, <br />Of the longings of that land, <br />Are two hands that plead in vain <br />Filled with burning sand.<br /><br />Duncan Campbell Scott<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/permanence/