GAUNT clouds are piled athwart the sky, The cold wind soughs along the earth, In hapless towns the people die, The fires are cold on every hearth, The spectral moon has lost its light, The shrunken sun is pale and wan, And time is one unholy night — A night that never knows a dawn. Forsaken homes where mortals dwelt Are drear as death and still as Styx, The cloisters where the godly knelt Are fallen on the crucifix; No watcher ponders on the stars, Of life and death no sages tell, No soldier hastens to the wars, No preacher speaks of heaven or hell. The fiery meteors cross the skies, And far apart the Twins have gone, @3A planet to the sacrifice!@1 And Paris sleeps with Babylon. A mighty race has passed away, A fretful planet whirled in space — A pawn in time's unending play, Is mourning for the mighty race. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HEROIC LOVE by JAMES GRAHAM (1612-1650) THE DARK ANGEL by LIONEL PIGOT JOHNSON THE DYING SWAN by THOMAS STURGE MOORE SALOME by GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE MY WIFE'S COUSIN, SELECTION by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN AT FONT-GEORGES by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE LILIES: 30. THE WHOLE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |