Ah no! not these! Those, who were childless, are not they who gave So many dead unto the journeying wave, The helpless nurslings of thy cradling seas; Not they who doomed by infallible decrees Unnumbered man to the innumerable grave. But those who slay Are fathers. Theirs are armies. Death is theirs -- The death of innocences and despairs; The dying of the golden and the gray. The sentence, when these speak it, has no Nay. And she who slays is she who bears, who bears. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HYMN TO MONT BLANC [IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI] by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 1 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE MARCH OF XERXES by LUIGI ALAMANNI NIGHTINGALE AND CUCKOO by ALFRED AUSTIN AN EPITAPH ON HIM by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 16 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |