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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE END, by PATRICK MACGILL Poet's Biography
First Line: Gaunt clouds are piled athwart the sky
Last Line: Is mourning for the mighty race.
Subject(s): Death; Mortality; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement
First Line: Gaunt clouds are piled athwart the sky
Last Line: Is mourning for the mighty race.
Subject(s): Death; Mortality; Mourning; Dead, The; Bereavement
GAUNT clouds are piled athwart the sky,
The cold wind soughs along the earth,
In hapless towns the people die,
The fires are cold on every hearth,
The spectral moon has lost its light,
The shrunken sun is pale and wan,
And time is one unholy night —
A night that never knows a dawn.
Forsaken homes where mortals dwelt
Are drear as death and still as Styx,
The cloisters where the godly knelt
Are fallen on the crucifix;
No watcher ponders on the stars,
Of life and death no sages tell,
No soldier hastens to the wars,
No preacher speaks of heaven or hell.
The fiery meteors cross the skies,
And far apart the Twins have gone,
A planet to the sacrifice!
And Paris sleeps with Babylon.
A mighty race has passed away,
A fretful planet whirled in space —
A pawn in time's unending play,
Is mourning for the mighty race.
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