Vigil and vision New Sonnets by John Payne |
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ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN HORSE-HOLOCAUST. |
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 | Vigil and vision |  |
ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN HORSE-HOLOCAUST.
OF all these grim three years of grief and gore,There's nought so stirs the source of tears in me
As the sad myriads from oversea
Of horses brought, to perish without store.
Ah, England of my love, my heart is sore
To think what load of penance laid on thee
In the grim Future, what calamity,
Dearth, famine, pestilence, intestine war,
Must for the wrongs of the true horse atone,
Man's patient, loving slave, for faith inbred
And native virtue worth a world of Boers,
Forsaken on the arid Afric moors,
Offcast to die, despairing and alone,
With the vile vultures hovering round his head.
| Vigil and vision | |