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SONNET XIV BETHLEHEM AND THE GREEN PARK
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162

SONNET XIV
BETHLEHEM AND THE GREEN PARK

The barley-fields of Bethlehem,—the sky
Full of far depths of colour strange and sweet;
Boaz asleep,—and Ruth beside his feet
Dreaming—the feathery swift moths fleeting by.
Through his light sleep he hears a woman sigh
And wakes and finds her, and their spirits meet:—
Around them still that hush of Eastern heat,
And the broad yellow sunburnt plains and dry.
Another night:—the centuries have fled,
Fled fast: in London, underneath a tree
In the Green Park a soldier sits, and he
Circles his sweetheart with strong arm, till lo!
From the white barrack doth the bugle blow.
Love lives, though Ruth the Moabite is dead.