WHAT tyrant starved the living out, and kept Their dead in this deserted settlement! There is no voice at home, no eyes to look Down from their windows on these gardens wild; A tyrant has refused his people work, Since they had claimed a right to share his spoils, And they have left their dead forsaken here. Here will I sit upon this fallen tree, Beside these ancient ruins, ivy-crowned, Where Nature makes green mosses ooze and spread Out of the pores of their decaying walls -- Here will I sit to mourn that people gone. Where are they gone that there's no maiden left To weep the fall of this sweet village lost, Down where its waters pass the empty mills! No living thing except one tethered lamb, That has been crying full an hour in vain, And, on that green where children played their games, Has browsed his circle bare, and bleats to see More dewy pastures all beyond his reach. Where is maid Margaret, whom I saw crowned Queen of the May before so many eyes? And scornful Maud, of her rare beauty proud -- That cruel rose bud, with her close hard heart, Between whose folds no mercy drop could lodge: And where the men who threw the hammer's weight, And leapt this common but three moons ago When unto heaven they sent a deafening shout Like wild Pacific, when he leaps and falls At Raratonga, off a coral reef: Then, in Life's glorious deep they swam and laughed, And felt no nameless substance touch their limbs To make them sick with dread of things unseen. Had they no dreamer here who might remain To sing for them these desolated scenes? One who might on a starved body take Strong flights beyond the fiery larks in song, With awful music, passionate with hate? Were I that bard, and that poor people mine, I would make strangers curse that tyrant's day: Would call on Sleep, compeller of strange dreams, Who leads the unbeliever to the Heaven he doubts, And makes a false one fear the Hell he scorns -- Would call on Sleep to bring him ghastly dreams, And haunt that tyrant's night without repose. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THEY SAY - . by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER THE CRUEL MISTRESS by THOMAS CAREW ELEGIAC SONNET: 2. WRITTEN AT THE CLOSE OF SPRING by CHARLOTTE SMITH THE HAPPY WANDERER by PERCY ADDLESHAW BROTHERLY LOVE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE MAID VAR MY BRIDE by WILLIAM BARNES THE THREE MUSICIANS by AUBREY BEARDSLEY EMANCIPATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, APRIL 16, 1862 by JAMES MADISON BELL |