He limped beneath the Arch, across the Square, And through the dazzling shaft of rainbow-air That blew from where the busy fountain leaped. For him within that vision-laden cloud There were no peaceful hills, no valleys loud With streams, no fields in honeysuckle steeped. Grim hills there were, emplumed with puffs of smoke— Valleys there were, where biting guns awoke Echoes that died amid the eternal din— Broad honeysuckle-bordered fields there were, Stamped down by passing troops,—and in the air That smell which only is where war has been. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PALABRAS CARINOSAS (SPANISH AIR) by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH FREEDOM AND LOVE by THOMAS CAMPBELL STREET LANTERNS by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE ON SOME LINES OF LOPE DE VEGA by SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784) THE VAMPIRE by RUDYARD KIPLING THE SABBATH MORNING by JOHN LEYDEN THE SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE: 2 by GEORGE MEREDITH LOVE DISSEMBLED, FR. AS YOU LIKE IT by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THOUGHT OF A BRITON ON THE SUBJUGATION OF SWITZERLAND by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |