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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 5, No. 2 April 23, 1942

Requiem for Swift

page 3

Requiem for Swift

Seek no forgiveness in the stars' calm pity
for the blazing street-lamp crucified on night,
for the mind conscious of the sleeping city
as dark seas breaking over, rock-torn light.
A happy ending wouldn't fit the story
of Gulliver who spread his sails to truth;
lest he should lie or come to terms with glory,
madness fulfilled the promise of his youth.
Futile to shun or imitate the rage
welding his private error to the world;
it didn't save him-at the end, alone,
he tore with hopeless fingers at his cage
in lamentation that a meteor hurled
so far from home lay wrecked on earth-soiled stone.

Eulenspiegel