Unicorns
O unicorn among the cedars
To whom no magic charm can lead us,
White childhood moving like a sigh
Through the green woods unharmed in thy
Sophisticated innocence...
W.H. Auden
He gallops across the forest green
So quickly that he's seldom seen
Where Peacocks their blue feathers preen
And strawberries grow wild.
William Jay Smith
The hunter stood beside me
Who blew that mighty horn;
I saw that he was hunting
The gentle unicorn --
But the unicorn is noble,
He knows his gentle birth,
He knows that God has chosen him
Above all beasts of earth.
The unicorn is noble;
He keeps him safe and high
Upon a narrow path and steep
Climbing to the sky;
And there no man can take him,
He scorn's the hunter's dart,
And only a virgin's magic power
Shall tame his haughty heart
-- German medieval folk song
Translator unknown
The Unicorn and the White Doe
Unicorn with bursting heart
Breath of love has drawn:
On his desolate crags apart,
At rumor of dawn,
Has blared aloud his pride
This long age mute,
Lurched his horn from side to side,
Lunged with his foot.
Like a storm of sand I run
Breaking the desert's boundaries,
I go in hiding from the sun
In thick shade of trees.
Straight was the track I took
Across the plains, but here with briar
And mire the tangled alleys crook,
Baulking desire.
O there, what glinted white?
(A bough still shakes.)
What was it darted from my sight
Through the forest brakes?
Where are you fled from me?
I pursue, you fade;
I run, you hide from me,
In the dark glade.
Towering high the trees grow,
The grass grows thick.
Where you are I do not know,
You run so quick.
-Robert Graves
Water flowers curve back their nighttime petals,
owls spread dreamwings in the starlight,
flamingos arch their gentle necks and dip their heads
to meet silver reflections in the stream.
The moon is spill out of the sky in waterfalls of light;
a mist of scented jasmine hangs heavy in the air.
This is the night garden of the unicorn. Here he pastures
among drowsy ferns and humming insects,
caressed by spiderweb dreams, brushed
by the wings of midnight butterflies.
-Josephine Bradley, from A Small Book of Unicorns (Paintings by Jay Burch)
In the heart of the forest a unicorn is born.
The trees hold gentle branches around it;
the forest pool guards its secret;
only the stars can see.
Among the silent spaces of the trees it grows
protected, nurtured by sunlight,
watched over by winds and soft-footed shadows.
-Josephine Bradley, from A Small Book of Unicorns (Paintings by Jay Burch)
I seek to come close to the unicorn,
to feel for myself the curve of its horn,
the cool of its satin silver ksin.
In my dreams I caress it, possess it,
feel soft in my hair its dragonfly breath.
I roam with it in meadows high with flowers,
foxgloves, and daisies, the iris and the wild red rose.
The mountains rise blue and magical in the distance;
the sunlight sends golden needles
darting through the strea;
the air is heavy with the scent of lilies.
O unicorn, keep me by you!
Let me race with you to the far fringes
of the clouds; let me stand silent beside you
in pastures of snow.
-Josephine Bradley, from A Small Book of Unicorns (Paintings by Jay Burch)
Magical, Mystical, Majestic
If deep in your heart, you truly believe,
a sight you then will behold,
of a creature of brilliance who bares a gold horn,
is how the story's told.
Many a man a horse they shall see
standing straight in front of them,
they have closed eyes of non faith,
and pursued a life of pure sin.
They canter amongst fields made of green,
drinking the water from the lakes,
when I close my eyes and dreams bring me here,
it's then that I pray not to wake.
Their beauty for years has mesmerized me,
perfection with them at it's best,
When God had created the Unicorns soul,
he truly out did all the rest.
Nothing has ever come close in it's tries,
to grace this fine world we call ours,
All the princesses living in enchanted lands,
stare down at them from their high above towers.
I thank God each day that my eyes can behold,
a vision that most will not see,
they roam my world built on fantasy,
where there I shall let them roam free.
-Sharon McCabe
The maiden is sent to seek out the unicorn.
Smooth and sudden as a flight of birds she enters
the maze of dappled shadow and he comes to her,
gentle as a rose, caught in her hair,
woven into the web of her mind,
multiplying softly within her.
-Josephine Bradley, from A Small Book of Unicorns (Paintings by Jay Burch)
And into the world came the unicorn: first and last;
flying on wings of milky glass, landing
like a satin ghost on the rocky promontories
of creation. It stands erect in the predawn wind,
waiting for earthrise. Around it blow silent winds,
while meteors and comets hurl their fire,
and dragon clouds collide.
-Josephine Bradley, from A Small Book of Unicorns (Paintings by Jay Burch)
The unicorn holds many secrets:
the secrets of jungles and moonlight;
the secrets that lie hidden at the roots of trees
and conceal themselves in coral labyrinths
beneath the ocean.
I look deep into its amber eyes
and see my own reflection,
but altered in line and light,
as if in a dream.
-Josephine Bradley, from A Small Book of Unicorns (Paintings by Jay Burch)
The Last Unicorn
When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain,
And the Last lion roars at the last dusty fountain,
In the shadow of the forest, though she may be old and worn,
They will stare, unbelieving, at the Last Unicorn.
When the first breath of winter through the flowers is icing,
And you look to the north and the pale moon is rising,
And it seems like all is dying and would leave the world to mourn
In the distance, her the laughter of the Last Unicorn,
I'm alive...I'm alive...
When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning,
And the future has past without even a last desperate warning,
Then look into the sky where through the clouds a path is formed
Look and see her, how she sparkles, it's the Last Unicorn,
I'm alive...I'm alive...
