)
Panel and circumscribing wall
Of latest feature, trim and tall,
Rose roundabout the Norman core
In prouder pose than theretofore,
Encasing magically the old
With parpend ashlars manifold.
The trowels rang out, and tracery
Appeared where blanks had used to be.
Men toiled for pleasure more than pay,
And all went smoothly day by day,
Till, in due course, the transept part
Engrossed the master-mason's art.
- Home-coming thence he tossed and turned
Throughout the night till the new sun burned.
"What fearful visions have inspired
These gaingivings?" his wife inquired;
"As if your tools were in your hand
You have hammered, fitted, muttered, planned;
"You have thumped as you were working hard:
I might have found me bruised and scarred.
"What then's amiss. What eating care
Looms nigh, whereof I am unaware?"
He answered not, but churchward went,
Viewing his draughts with discontent;
And fumbled there the livelong day
Till, hollow-eyed, he came away.
- 'Twas said, "The master-mason's ill!"
And all the abbey works stood still.
Quoth Abbot Wygmore: "Why, O why
Distress yourself? You'll surely die!"
The mason answered, trouble-torn,
"This long-vogued style is quite outworn!
"The upper archmould nohow serves
To meet the lower tracery curves:
"The ogees bend too far away
To give the flexures interplay.
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