Friday, August 24, 2012

In the last minute of the first hour


My man and I laughed out loud over coffee and Wendy Cope's poems this morning. I've had time and memory on my mind lately so I especially appreciated a lighthearted treatment of the subject in this one:

A Nursery Rhyme

as it might have been written 
by T.S. Eliot

Because time will not run backwards
Because time
Because time will not run
                                         Hickory dickory

In the last minute of the first hour
I saw the mouse ascend the ancient timepiece,
Claws whispering like wind in dry hyacinths.

One o'clock,
The street lamp said,
'Remark the mouse that races towards the carpet.'

And the unstilled wheel still turning
                                                          Hickory dickory
                                                          Hickory dickory
dock

-- Wendy Cope             


3 comments:

Farm Girl said...

Very cute and nicely done.

Jo said...

What a marvellous poem! I'm going to read it to the children.

Dear Thomas Stearns. He gave us so much to wonder at. I still hope that J Alfred Prufrock did dare, in the end, to eat a peach..

Gumbo Lily said...

I like it!