HERE the warm sunshine fills Like wine of gods the deepening, cupshaped dells, Embossed with marvellous flowers; the happy rills Roam through the autumnal fields whose rich increase Of gathered grain smiles under heavens of peace; While many a bird-song swells From glades of neighboring woodlands, cool and fair, -- Content and peace are @3here@1. There the wild battle's wrath Thunders from castled height to storied plain, Ploughs with red lightning-bolts its terrible path, And sows the abhorrent seeds of blood and death, Blown far on Desolation's tameless breath, While for autumnal grain Time reaps the harvest of a bleak despair, -- God's curse consumes them @3there@1. Here jovial children play Beneath the latest vine-leaves; innocent kings, And blissful queens, -- on them the matron Day, Like a sweet mother drops her kisses light; The every clouds some secret joy makes bright, And round us clings and clings, With Ariel arms, the season's influence rare, -- Heaven's heart beats near us @3here@1. There love bemoans its lost, Countless as seaside sands; all joys of life Rest locked and stirless in the blood-red frost; Ye drums, roll out, shrill clarions, peal your parts! Ye cannot drown the wail of broken hearts, Nor still that spiritual strife Which thrills through Victory's voice its death-notes drear, -- Dear Christ, soothe, save them @3there@1. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLUEBELL by EMILY JANE BRONTE NEW YORK AT NIGHT by AMY LOWELL THE LAST LOOK O' HAME by HEW AINSLIE RING FROM THE RIM OF THE GLASS, BOYS by JOHN CLINTON ANTHONY FALSORUM DEORUM CULTOR by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |