Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SACK OF THE CITY, by VICTOR MARIE HUGO


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SACK OF THE CITY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thy will, o king, is done! Lighting but to consume
Last Line: With golden circlet to thy glorious ankle bound.
Subject(s): Asia; Tragedy; Far East; East Asia; Orient


THY will, O King, is done! Lighting but to con-
sume,
The roar of the fierce flames drowned even the
shouts and shrieks;
Reddening each roof, like some day-dawn of
bloody doom,
Seemed they in joyous flight to dance above
their wrecks.

Slaughter his thousand giant arms hath tossed on
high,
Fell fathers, husbands, wives, beneath his
streaming steel;
Prostrate the palaces huge tombs of fire lie,
While gathering overhead the vultures scream
and wheel.

Died the pale mothers; -- and the virgins, from
their arms,
O Caliph, fiercely torn, bewailed their young
years' blight;
With stabs and kisses fouled, all their yet quiver-
ing charms
At our fleet coursers' heels were dragged in
mocking flight.

Lo, where the city lies mantled in pall of death!
Lo, where thy mighty arm hath passed, all
things must bend!
As the priests prayed, the sword stopped their
accursed breath, --
Vainly their sacred book for shield did they
extend.

Some infants yet survived, and the unsated steel
Still drinks the life-blood of each whelp of
Christian hound.
To kiss thy sandal's foot, O King, thy people
kneel,
With golden circlet to thy glorious ankle bound.




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