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قراءة كتاب Boer War Lyrics

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‏اللغة: English
Boer War Lyrics

Boer War Lyrics

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
الصفحة رقم: 3

sit in judgment twixt Foul and Fair;
Should slaver worse, if she came of age,
With inglorious snivel wise Clio’s page:
Lest all of this, with what sousing tact
They niced her the diverse of whim and fact;
How glowed their zeal as they raked the Rue,
Broke font and tablet and put her through
Such drench of penance and convert-course,
Such Christian baptism from Truth, the Source:
Sure text nor ritual made never doubt,
Nor seasoned clerks, as with wary snout,
Each subtle wealsman stood sly at bay:
For leet or laurel—let wise Time say.
* * * * * * *
Well—this was the Song of the Sorrowful True:
A rip of a Muse—but it gives her view.
Curt and clear tho’, did the touches fall,
Such pithy halves as outspeak the Whole:
Are you with me still? Can you check a flout?
Then stretch a will to hear it out?

VIDELICET:
(Hour before Dawn—The Muse brooding.)
O, what hangs so leaden on the brow of Night,
As if grim Darkness ’pon herself had bred,
To make a second and a direr gloom?
What wrestles so the advent of the Light,
Whence from yon paths the white stars tread
Should visioned peer its orient bloom?
What thrills, withal, do baffled heave,
Then urge anew against the serried Dark,
At such beseech, their silent suit?
What muttered rolls half-halting cleave
These omened airs that still hang stark,
As big with what they dare not bruit?
(Faint Dawn.)
But yet it lifts, thro’ huddling blurs,
The eager Light. Lo, Day saddles the white Dawn,
At heel his troop, close-wheeling, spurs,
Unto his banner world-wide thrown,
Each waft, his way. Close Night unhoods;
No more beneath her grim gaze shrinks,
But featured fair, in tribute ruds
Each nether thing, and lifesome drinks.
(Full Dawn.)
But, O, scene-painting Light, what stage is yon?
Dim-figured tho’, what grim play breeds?
Troy’s second act? Where Hector stout, some Thetis’ son,
The deadly phalanx girds and leads?
What fatal Beauty bears in hand
With strumpet’s lure this sore divide?
For lo, her brow, to venal brand,
Reads fierce with lust of worldly pride!
Why wears true Grace so blanched a cheek?
What things o’ Night do rouse for prey,
Confound with grim and loathsome reek
The balmy breath of youngling Day?
What lists be those? What dirges wail?
Why drags white Peace yon gory pall?
I see great Mars in flame-knit mail,
I hear the fierce god’s buglers call.
And gleamy steel from scabbard flies,
War’s every hound is red at mouth,
No belching throat but havoc cries,
Would drench in blood the Summer’s drought.
Out, Sense! some trick is here of phrenzied Night;
These clamors wind no human breath,
But ghostly haunt yon winsome light
The phantom shades of legioned Death.
And yet yon orb is surely Day’s:
The Land re-speaks him, and his glass, the sea;
All tongues at one, no witness stays,
But owns his line observantly.
Nay, flung wide is now the portaled East;
Behind, before, Light’s lofty welcome burns,
Whose cheer wide-spread for Most and Least,
Repledged, alone, his host-call earns.
But O, what mates come here to feed!
They spill the sweet and lifesome wine;
They fool the sense with sightless greed,
The knife their law twixt yours and mine.
And these, for sure, are Afric’s strands,
And those have rid the hurly sea,
Whence towering fair great Albion stands,
His brow writ broad with Liberty;
With her, whose cheer is general joy—
The gracious board whose never mess
Lets these to pine, so those may cloy
And glut his maw, the Hog, Excess—
But these no more are kindred shores:
Here may her buckler rusting hang,
Where, still at beat, thro’ throbbing yores,
Oppression’s slave-blows dying rang.
Here, all thro’ fear and nothing love,
As if each patient light stood mute,
May ripping talons deal the Dove
This branding scan—a prostitute!
Thy pardon, god of lofty song,
Whose fires feed the Piaerian Spring,
If Truth for right to scoff at Wrong,
In thy fair flame a gall-nut fling!
Yes, yon, for sure, are Afric’s strands,
But where is the banneret of the Free?
What fouling touch of harpy hands
Has smirched his shield and panoply?
What spouse is this, my valiant Son?
What gross embrace for Freedom’s kiss:
These are the sheets of Abbadon,
The bastard clasp high Furies hiss!
O, John, was not thy bed as goodly broad
As Phœbus spans twixt East and West?
His, not the haunts thy fortune

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