by Arthur Symons (1865 - 1945)
The grey wolf
Language: English
The grey wolf comes again : I had made fast The door with chains ; how has the grey wolf passed My threshold ? I have nothing left to give : Go from me now, grey wolf, and let me live ! I have fed you once, given all you would, given all I had to give, I have been prodigal ; I am poor now, the table is but spread With water and a little wheaten bread ; You have taken all I ever had from me : Go from me now, grey wolf, and let me be ! The grey wolf, crouching by the bolted door, Waits, watching for his food upon the floor ; I see the old hunger and the old thirst [of]1 blood Rise up, under his [eyelids]2, like a flood : What shall I do that the grey wolf may go ? This time, I have no store of meat to throw ; He waits ; but I have [nothing]3, and I stand Helpless, and his eyes fasten on my hand. O grey wolf, grey wolf, will you not depart, [This time]4, unless I feed you with my heart?
View original text (without footnotes)
2 Burleigh: "eye-balls"
3 Burleigh: "nothing left"
4 omitted by Burleigh
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
Confirmed with Arthur Symons, Poems by Arthur Symons, vol. 2, London: William Heinemann, 1912, page 192.
1 Burleigh: "for"2 Burleigh: "eye-balls"
3 Burleigh: "nothing left"
4 omitted by Burleigh
Authorship:
- by Arthur Symons (1865 - 1945), "The grey wolf", appears in Poems of Arthur Symons, Volume 2, in The Loom of Dreams, first published 1914 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Harry Thacker Burleigh (1866 - 1949), "The grey wolf", 1915, published 1915, copyright © 1915 [ high voice and piano ], G. Ricordi [sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2008-12-31
Line count: 20
Word count: 195