| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Lion’s Skeleton |
| | | Charles Tennyson Turner (1808–79) |
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| HOW long, O lion, hast thou fleshless lain? | |
| 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 | 5 |
| 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; | 10 |
| 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. | |
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