The Corner Stone

The Corner Stone written by Walter de la Mare

The Veil and Other Poems (1921)

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     Sterile these stones
     By time in ruin laid.
     Yet many a creeping thing
     Its haven has made
     In these least crannies, where falls
     Dark's dew, and noonday shade.

     The claw of the tender bird
     Finds lodgment here;
     Dye-winged butterflies poise;
     Emmet and beetle steer
     Their busy course; the bee
     Drones, laden, near.

     Their myriad-mirrored eyes
     Great day reflect.
     By their exquisite farings

     Is this granite specked;
     Is trodden to infinite dust;
     By gnawing lichens decked.

     Toward what eventual dream
     Sleeps its cold on,
     When into ultimate dark
     These lives shall be gone,
     And even of man not a shadow remain
     Of all he has done?

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