The Ornamental Hermits

Veiled melancholy, mid-lay accidie,
  Improvings of the landskip sheathed in rain:
We dwell, not live, shifting from knee to knee
  In robes as uncanonical as plain,
Nodding, like Homer, over knucklebones,
  (Cold vertebrae a starwork on the floor)
Serviced by birdsong: vespers, compline, nones -
  The cycles of unalterable law.
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