Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, INTO THE MIDST OF BATTLE, by CARLA LANYON LANYON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

INTO THE MIDST OF BATTLE, by                    
First Line: The mountains are at war; flash and flash again
Last Line: That were before and shall endure beyond all wars.
Subject(s): Mountains; War; Hills; Downs (great Britain)


The mountains are at war; flash and flash again
In the heavy dusk, shower of stone and grass;
The mountains are at war—soldiers from the plain,
Strange guns in the valley and strange dead in the pass.

Gather in your great-uddered goats,
The little leaping kids from near and far.
Leave for the first time your fathers' fathers' huts,
There—the guns again; the mountains are at war
Why should this be, that our earth heaves under us?
The familiar crag smokes, and the grey cloudy peak
Spits midnight fire, the foot-hills are thunderous;
O strange brown armies, why do the hills speak?

Fill your coloured pitcher at the spring,
Pannier the white donkey with its red and blue trappings.
It's a long wild journey with a hovel ending;
The mountains are at war; these are proud happenings.

Here was our land, stubborn and frugal,
We hoed and harrowed it, scratched at the skin.
Your mines go deeper, but the wounds are unfruitful.
The mountains are at war, but the mountains win.

Make fast the spurred legs of the speckled cock,
Go down the cattle track, your lean dogs about you,
With your children and your goods; the mountains rock,
They are possessed of soldiers and are best without you.

But, going, still remember the peace of goat bells,
A stream falling, the loneliness of stars,
The impervious seasons creeping on the hills
That were before and shall endure beyond all wars.





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