| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Prelude | | By Arthur Christopher Benson (1862–1925) |
| | | HUSH’D is each busy shout: | |
| The reverent people wait, | |
| To see the sacred pomp stream out | |
| Beside the temple-gate. | |
| |
| The bull with garlands hung, | 5 |
| Stern priests in vesture grim: | |
| With rolling voices swiftly sung | |
| Peals out the jocund hymn. | |
| |
| In front, behind, beside, | |
| Beneath the chiming towers, | 10 |
| Pass boys that fling the censer wide, | |
| And striplings scattering flowers. | |
| |
| Victim, or minister | |
| I dare not claim to be, | |
| But in the concourse and the stir, | 15 |
| There shall be room for me. | |
| |
| The victim feels the stroke: | |
| The priests are bow’d in prayer:— | |
| I feed the porch with fragrant smoke, | |
| Strew roses on the stair. | 20 | | | |
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