What Lethe?
by MARY GRANT
WHERE may the spirit win
Deep forgetting? What spell,
Witch’s apple, or flower
Has in dark juice such power
To blur remembrance, to thin
Desire’s image, to quell
The pain-keen longing? What stone
Steadfastly gazed upon
May maze the memory, and reach
The shrunken channels of speech,
Winning by words redress:
To a child, for the emptiness
Of a lost plaything’s place;
For love’s incredible
Bitternesses, to youth;
For a dream, to age, or a face
Grown alien, a worshiped truth
Tarnished, a faith that fell . . .
What Lethe? What asphodel?
Deep forgetting? What spell,
Witch’s apple, or flower
Has in dark juice such power
To blur remembrance, to thin
Desire’s image, to quell
The pain-keen longing? What stone
Steadfastly gazed upon
May maze the memory, and reach
The shrunken channels of speech,
Winning by words redress:
To a child, for the emptiness
Of a lost plaything’s place;
For love’s incredible
Bitternesses, to youth;
For a dream, to age, or a face
Grown alien, a worshiped truth
Tarnished, a faith that fell . . .
What Lethe? What asphodel?