On Mr. Nettleship’s Picture at the Royal Hibernian Academy + 

Yonder the sickle of the moon sails on, + 

But here the Lioness licks her soft cub + 

Tender and fearless on her funeral pyre; + 

Above, saliva dripping from his jaws, + 

The Lion, the world’s great solitary, bends + 

Lowly the head of his magnificence + 

And roars, mad with the touch of the unknown, + 

Not as he shakes the forest; but a cry + 

Low, long and musical. A dew-drop hung + 

Bright on a grass blade’s under side, might hear + 

Nor tremble to its fall. The fire sweeps round + 

Re-shining in his eyes. So ever moves + 

The flaming circle of the outer Law, + 

Nor heeds the old, dim protest and the cry + 

The orb of the most inner living heart + 

Gives forth. He, the Eternal, works His will. + 