When they were come back from the wars their heads were seamed with bleeding scars, their hearts betwixt clenched teeth they gripped, in rivulets their blood had dripped, when they were come back from the wars, the blue, the red, the sons of Mars, they sought their snuff-boxes so fine, their chests, their sheets all spotless showing, they sought their kine, their grunting swine, their wives and sweethearts at their sewing, their roguish children, like as not crowned with a shining copper pot, they even sought their homes, poor souls . . . they only found the worms and moles. The carrion raven clamored o'er them. -- They spat their broken hearts before them! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 55. ST. VALENTINE'S DAY by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE UNPARDONABLE SIN by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY ON CRITICS; IN IMITATION OF ANACREON by MATTHEW PRIOR PROTHALAMION by EDMUND SPENSER THE LEPER by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE TO A YOUNG MAN ON THE PLATFORM OF A SUBWAY EXPRESS by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE 'STAY AT HOME'S' PLAINT, 1878 by GEORGE AUGUSTUS BAKER JR. |