The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen by Wilfred Owen

Author:Wilfred Owen [Owen, Wilfred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8112-2367-6
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2013-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Hospital Barge at Cérisy

Budging the sluggard ripples of the Somme,

A barge round old Cérisy slowly slewed.

Softly her engines down the current screwed

And chuckled in her, with contented hum.

Till fairy tinklings struck their croonings dumb.

The waters rumpling at the stern subdued.

The lock-gate took her bulging amplitude.

Gently from out the gurgling lock she swum.

One reading by that sunset raised his eyes

To watch her lessening westward quietly,

Till, as she neared the bend, her funnel screamed.

And that long lamentation made him wise

How unto Avalon, in agony,

Kings passed in the dark barge, which Merlin dreamed.

December 8, 1917.

BM has three drafts; HO has one.

I. 8: HO and earlier BM drafts give gently into, which EB follows.

The final BM draft has into deleted and from out inserted. I prefer this, as a new stage in the barge’s progress, to the EB text, which makes the line a repetition of the previous line’s meaning.

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