Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A HOUSE IN FESTUBERT, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A HOUSE IN FESTUBERT, by             Poet's Biography
First Line: With blind eyes meeting the mist and moon
Last Line: -- could summer betray you?
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


WITH blind eyes meeting the mist and moon
And yet with blossoming trees robed round,
With gashes black, nay, one great wound,
Amazing still it stands its ground;
Sad soul, here stay you.

It held, one time, such happy hours,
Its tables shone with smiles and filled
The hungry -- Home! 'twas theirs, is ours,
We house it here and laugh unkilled.
Hoarse gun, now, pray you --

It knew the hand and voice of Sleep,
Sleep was its friend and nightly came,
And still the bony laths would keep
One friendship, but poor Sleep's gone lame.
O poisoner, Mahu!

A hermit might have built a cell
Among those evergreens, beside
That mellow wall: they serve as well
For four lean guns. Soft, hermits, hide,
Lest pride display you.

It hived the bird's call, the bee's hum,
The sunbeams crossing the garden's shade --
So fond of summer! still they come,
But steel-born bees, birds, beams invade.
-- Could summer betray you?





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