Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SEVASTOPOL by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR

First Line: OVER THE DEAD IS A SYRIAN SKY
Last Line: "AND SIGHS ABOVE THEM, ""ALAS FOR GLORY!"
Subject(s): CEMETERIES; CRIMEAN WAR (1853-1856); RUSSIA; SEVASTOPOL, UKRAINE; GRAVEYARDS; SOVIET UNION; RUSSIANS;

OVER the Dead is a Syrian sky,
And a light wind blows from the Vale of Baidar;
But what care they as they mutely lie, --
Column and captain, steed and rider?

Tulips and poppies can never bloom
Dear to their slumber as English daisies;
Nor the nightingale's warble in bowery gloom
Atone for the skylark's rapturous mazes.

Ghostly cities and nameless graves; --
This is the sum of the battle's story!
And the wind of Baidar the brown grass waves,
And sighs above them, "Alas for Glory!"



Home: PoetryExplorer.net