A Lump of Carbon
W. B.
Tyndall
Tyndall, W. B.
W. B. T.
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Kailey
Fukushima
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Poet attribution: Chambers’s Journal ledger indicates that W. B. Tyndall was paid 10s 6d for the poem (NLS Dep 341/369). (AC)
Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal
4
17
878
688
Tell me, lump of Carbon, burning
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A Lump of Carbo
n.
Tell me, lump of Carbon, burning
Lurid in the glowing grate,
While thy flames rise twisting, turning,
Quench in me this curious yearning,
Ages past elucidate.
Tell me of the time when, waving
High above the primal world,
Thou, a giant palm-tree, lifting
Thy proud head above the shifting
Of the storm-cloud’s lightning hurled,
While the tropic sea, hot laving,
Round thy roots its billows curled.
Tell me, did the Mammoth, straying
Near that mighty trunk of yours,
On the verdure stop and graze,
Which thy ample base displays,
Or his weary limbs down laying,
Sleep away the tardy hours ?
Perchance some monstrous Saurian, sliding,
Waddled up the neighbouring strand,
Or leapt into its native sea
With something of agility,
Though all ungainly on the land ;
While near your roots, in blood-stained fray,
Maybe two Ichthyc beasts colliding,
Bit and fought their lives away.
Tell me, Ancient Palm-corpse, was there
In that world of yours primeval
Aught of man in perfect shape ?
Was there good ? and was there evil ?
Was it man ? or was it ape ?
Tell me, lump of Carbon, burning
Lurid in the glowing grate,
Lies there in each human face
Something of the monkey’s trace ?
Tell me, have we lost a link ?
Stir thy coaly brain and think,
While thy red flames rise and sink,
Ages past elucidate.
W. B. T.