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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT CARCASSONNE by WINFRED ERNEST GARRISON

First Line: DOWN THE VALLEYS OF LANGUEDOC
Last Line: IN MY CHILDREN'S TIME MAY THERE BE NO WAR.
Subject(s): CARCASSONNE, FRANCE; SOCIAL PROTEST; SOLDIERS; WAR;
Down the valleys of Languedoc,
Where the ghosts of knights and troubadours flock,
Hiding by day and riding by night,
When the road in the moonlight is silvery white—
So we journeyed on and on
Up to the Cité of Carcassonne.
Three score towers against the sky
Like mailed fists clenched and lifted high;
Tall battlements; a grim château;
And round and round the gray walls go.
A draw-bridge here, a postern there,
Loop-holes for archers everywhere,
And moat and scarpe and barbicans
All built in the days of high romance.
Gaul and Roman, Goth and Moor
Fought and wrought on this hill, and sure,
If ever war was glorified
By chivalry and song beside,
It must have been when Charles the Great,
Simon de Montfort and Louis the Saint
Stormed this town or held its towers,
And tournaments filled the quieter hours;
Or when Bernart Alanhan of old Narbonne,
As a troubadour guest of Carcassonne,
Sang of the brave knights' feats of war
And the beautiful ladies they did them for.
Troubadours, ladies and knights are gone.
No flags fly over Carcassonne
Save the banners of sunset aflame in the sky
As the one-armed watchman passes by.
Here in the scenes of old romance,
He lifts a voice for peace in France.
He told me his story yesterday,
And now he halts on his round to say:
How noble this business of fighting appears
Through the mist and haze of a thousand years,
Still they call it right against wrong,
And deck it with banners and bugles and song;
But this I pray God and Our Lady for—
In my children's time may there be no war.



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