Lines Addressed to an Owl:

In Memory of a Dear-loved Cat

 

 

great bird of night, upon the wings

   Of darkness, swift and strong,

Into my dreams’ imaginings,

   Flew your foreboding song:

Hoo HO-O-O…hoo…hoo!

Hoo HO-O-O…hoo…hoo!

   So haunting, mournful seemed;

So real that I could but construe

   That I no longer dreamed.

 

Your midnight-visioned image gripped

   My mind’s eye to its core

—And well I knew when through me ripped

   Its gaze, I’d sleep no more:

How fearsome wide those eyes of gold

   —How piercing sharp the beak!

How fierce—and deep!—your talons’ hold

   Upon me, helpless, meek.

 

You perched upon my towering fear,

   Your mighty wings tight-grouped;

Then, silent as night’s lunar sphere,

   Sheer swiftly down you swooped!

My damp skin felt your airy rush,

   Then something warm and soft

From out my heart, in your fell crush,

   Was ever-torn aloft.

                   

In melancholy I arose

   (All joy from me was flown,

All wrenched up in my stark repose),

   And I was all alone.

And in my heart—my ravaged heart!—

   So sickly, sad, and sore,

I knew a dear and precious part

   Would there return no more!

 

Great bird of night, hear now my song!

   I kneel beneath your stars:

Nor time nor tears, though life be long,

   Shall ever heal your scars.

You tore aloft—with fearsome flight—

   My soul’s most lightsome part.

Return! return! great bird of night,

   And clutch my heavy heart.