Love Song to Eohippus
Dictionary definition: “EOHIPPUS, Greek for dawn-horse, small graceful prehistoric ancestor of modern equine family; size of rabbit; had four toes, no hoofs.”
1
Dance, dance in this museum case,
Ballet-star of our mammal race,
You first wild avatar of grace.
Ballet-star of our mammal race,
You first wild avatar of grace.
2
Sweet Eohippus, “dawn-horse” in
That golden Attic tongue which now
Like you and Helen is extinct,
Like Cheshire cat of fading grin,
Like Carthage and like Villon’s snow,
With death and beauty gently linked.
That golden Attic tongue which now
Like you and Helen is extinct,
Like Cheshire cat of fading grin,
Like Carthage and like Villon’s snow,
With death and beauty gently linked.
3
Yet all are deathless in their fashion:
You live in science, they in song,
You in museums, she in Homer.
She cannot help but live while passion
Still lives; your dancing lives as long
As grace; “extinct” is a misnomer.
You live in science, they in song,
You in museums, she in Homer.
She cannot help but live while passion
Still lives; your dancing lives as long
As grace; “extinct” is a misnomer.
4
Because sly Darwin liked the Fit
And Mendel, good gray monk, sowed peas,
Dame Evolution said benignly,
“My child, get bigger,” and you did;
“Look here, those silly toes must cease!”
And you grew hoofs and frisked divinely.
And Mendel, good gray monk, sowed peas,
Dame Evolution said benignly,
“My child, get bigger,” and you did;
“Look here, those silly toes must cease!”
And you grew hoofs and frisked divinely.
5
When you were dodging dinosaurs
So recklessly, they were gigantic,
But look how Nature turns the tables:
Now they, who scared you with their roars,
Have changed to lizards, wee and frantic,
And you’re immense and live in stables.
So recklessly, they were gigantic,
But look how Nature turns the tables:
Now they, who scared you with their roars,
Have changed to lizards, wee and frantic,
And you’re immense and live in stables.
6
Ballet-star of our mammal race,
Last lingering of earth’s first grace,
Dance on in this museum case.
Last lingering of earth’s first grace,
Dance on in this museum case.