Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Charles Tennyson Turner 180879The Lions Skeleton
H
What rapt thy fierce and thirsty eyes away?
First came the vulture: worms, heat, wind, and rain
Ensued, and ardors of the tropic day.
I know not—if they spar’d it thee—how long
The canker sate within thy monstrous mane,
Till it fell piecemeal, and bestrew’d the plain,
Or, shredded by the storming sands, was flung
Again to earth; but now thine ample front,
Whereon the great frowns gather’d, is laid bare;
The thunders of thy throat, which erst were wont
To scare the desert, are no longer there;
Thy claws remain, but worms, wind, rain, and heat
Have sifted out the substance of thy feet.