The Ear

 

J. G. M. von Bremen

The Ear

 

There are many sounds which are neither music nor voice,

There are many visitors in masks or in black glasses

Climbing the spiral staircase of the ear. The choice

Of callers is not ours. Behind the hedge

Of night they wait to pounce. A train passes,

The thin and audible end of a dark wedge.

We should like to lie alone in a deaf hollow

Cocoon of self where no person or thing would speak:

In fact we lie and listen as a man would follow

A willo' the wisp in an eyeless bog,

Follow the terrible drone of a cock-chafer, or the bleak

Oracle of a barking dog.

Louis MacNeice

 

"Many visitors in masks or black glasses..."

Does any one of those callers bring a message of hope?