WHY JESUS WEPT 
7 
Throwing new roots down like a clump of banyans, 
Of Early Training Well the just Effect ! 
I would applaud thee, camel gracious-necked ! 
Confirm thee in thy reading of my task, 
Were it not foreign to the fact.  Select 
Another favour !—this too much to ask. 
The boy’s exemplar deeds were but an iron mask. 
 
(“ Ay !  for deception ! ”  Mrs. Sally G...d, 
The gawk and dowdy with the long grey teeth, 
Jumps to conclusion, instant, out of hand : 
“ There is some nasty secret underneath ! ” 
None nastier than thy name !  This verse, its sheath, 
Thou poisonous bitch, is rotten.  Fact, atone !) 
Such magic liquors in his veins there seethe 
As, would he master, need strong order known 
In life’s routine, ere he may dare to be alone. 
 
So there alone he was, and like a comet, 
Leaps on the utmost ridges of the hills. 
Then, like a dog returning to his vomit, 
Broods in the hall on all creation’s ills ! 
An idle volume with mere bosh he fills ; 
He dreams and dozes, toils and flies afar, 
Apace — the body by a thousand wills 
Of fire cross-twisted, bruised, is thrust, a spar, 
Wreckage of some wild sea, to seas without a star. 
 
Listen, O lady, listen, reverend Abbot, 
Lord of the Monastery, Fort Augustus !