Page:Poems Marianne Moore.djvu/27

HE MADE THIS SCREEN

not of silver nor of coral,
but of weatherbeaten laurel.

Here, he introduced a sea
uniform like tapestry;

here, a fig-tree; there, a face;
there, a dragon circling space—

designating here, a bower;
there, a pointed passion-flower.

 

TALISMAN

Under a splintered mast,
torn from ship and cast
    near her hull,

a stumbling shepherd found
embedded in the ground,
    a sea-gull

of lapis lazuli,
a scarab of the sea,
    with wings spread—

curling its coral feet,
parting its beak to greet
    men long dead.

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