When they were come back from the wars their heads were seamed with bleeding scars, their hearts betwixt clenched teeth they gripped, in rivulets their blood had dripped, when they were come back from the wars, the blue, the red, the sons of Mars, they sought their snuff-boxes so fine, their chests, their sheets all spotless showing, they sought their kine, their grunting swine, their wives and sweethearts at their sewing, their roguish children, like as not crowned with a shining copper pot, they even sought their homes, poor souls . . . they only found the worms and moles. The carrion raven clamored o'er them. -- They spat their broken hearts before them! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO THE PIOUS MEMORY OF THE YOUNG LADY MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW by JOHN DRYDEN A REASONABLE AFFLICTION (1) by MATTHEW PRIOR THE DESERTED HOUSE by ALFRED TENNYSON TO A LOCOMOTIVE IN WINTER by WALT WHITMAN ELEGIAC STANZAS SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF PEELE CASTLE, IN A STORM by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE BLIND ASTRONOMER by THOMAS ASA LINES TO ROBERT ALDERSON UPON HIS DEPARTURE FROM WARRINGTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD TWO SONNETS: 1. CHRIST AND LOVE'S ROSE-CROWN by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |