I. O NIGHT and death, to whom we grudged him then, When in man's sight he stood not yet undone, Your king, your priest, your saviour, and your son, We grudge not now, who know that not again Shall this curse come upon the sins of men, Nor this face look upon the living sun That shall behold not so abhorred an one In all the days whereof his eye takes ken. The bond is cancelled, and the prayer is heard That seemed so long but weak and wasted breath; Take him, for he is yours, O night and death. Hell yawns on him whose life was as a word Uttered by death in hate of heaven and light. A curse now dumb upon the lips of night. II. What shapes are these and shadows without end That fill the night full as a storm of rain With myriads of dead men and women slain, Old with young, child with mother, friend with friend, That on the deep mid wintering air impend, Pale yet with mortal wrath and human pain, Who died that this man dead now too might reign, Toward whom their hands point and their faces bend? The ruining flood would redden earth and air If for each soul whose guiltless blood was shed There fell but one drop on this one man's head Whose soul to-night stands bodiless and bare, For whom our hearts give thanks who put up prayer, That we have lived to say, the dog is dead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BEAUTIFUL by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE WHITE SHIPS AND THE RED by ALFRED JOYCE KILMER THE LAW OF THE YUKON by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S BURIAL HYMN by WALT WHITMAN THE MUSICAL CONQUERERS by PHILIP AYRES SHEET LIGHTNING by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN VERSES: THE SECOND BOY by JOHN BYROM TO HER IN ABSENCE; A SHIP by THOMAS CAREW LINES, IMPROMPTU, TO Q SCULL, ON ITS IMMEDIATELY ABSORBING SOME WINE by JOHN CHALK CLARIS |