 | Collected Poems of Laurence Binyon |  |
12
THE DRAY
Huge through the darkened street
The Dray comes, rolling an uneven thunder
Of wheels and trampling feet;
The shaken windows stare in sleepy wonder.
The Dray comes, rolling an uneven thunder
Of wheels and trampling feet;
The shaken windows stare in sleepy wonder.
Now through an open space,
Where loitering groups about the tavern's fume
Show many a sullen face
And brawling figure in the lighted gloom,
Where loitering groups about the tavern's fume
Show many a sullen face
And brawling figure in the lighted gloom,
It moves, a shadowy force
Through misery triumphant: flushed, on high
Guiding his easy course,
A giant sits, with indolent soft eye.
Through misery triumphant: flushed, on high
Guiding his easy course,
A giant sits, with indolent soft eye.
He turns not, that dim crowd
Of listless forms beneath him to behold;
Shawled women with head bowed
Flitting in hasty stealth, and children old:
Of listless forms beneath him to behold;
Shawled women with head bowed
Flitting in hasty stealth, and children old:
Calm as some conqueror
Rode through old Rome, nor heeded at his heel,
'Mid the proud spoils of war,
What woeful captives thronged his chariot wheel.
Rode through old Rome, nor heeded at his heel,
'Mid the proud spoils of war,
What woeful captives thronged his chariot wheel.
| Collected Poems of Laurence Binyon | |