To be or not to be, that is the question To justify the ways of God to men There was a time when meadow grove and stream The dropping of the daylight in the west Otters below and moorhens on the top Had fallen in Lyonesse about their Lord. There was a time when moorhens on the top To justify the daylight in the west, To be or not to be about their Lord Had fallen in Lyonesse from God to men; Otters below and meadow grove and stream, The dropping of the day, that is the question. A time when Lyonesse and grove and stream To be the daylight in the west on top When meadow otters fallen about their Lord To justify the moorhens is the question Or not to be the dropping God to men There was below the ways that is a time. To be in Lyonesse, that is the question To justify the otters, is the question The dropping of the meadows, is the question I do not know the answer to the question There was a time when moorhens in the west There was a time when daylight on the top There was a time when God was not a question There was a time when poets Then I came
From A.R.T.H.U.R. by Laurence Lerner. Copyright © 1974 by Laurence Levine. Reprinted by permission of the University of Massachusetts Press. All rights reserved.