Christopher Morley

Here you will find the Poem Hymn to the Dairymaids on Beacon Street of poet Christopher Morley

Hymn to the Dairymaids on Beacon Street

Sweetly solemn see them stand, 
Spinning churns on either hand, 
Neatly capped and aproned white 
Airy fairy dairy sight. 
Jersey priestesses they seem 
Miracling milk to cream. 
Cream solidifies to cheese 
By Pasteural mysteries, 
And they give, within their shrine, 
Their communión in kine. 
Incantations pure they mutter 
O'er the golden minted butter 
And (no layman hand can pen it) 
See them gloat above their rennet. 
By that hillside window pane 
Rugged teamsters draw the rein. 
Doff the battered hat and bow 
To these acolytes of cow. 
Genuflect, ye passersby! 
Muse upon their ritual high- 
Milk to cream, yea, cream to cheese 
White lacteal mysteries! 
Let adorers sing the word 
Of the smoothly flowing curd. 
Yea, we sing with bells and fife 
This is the whey, this is the Life.