University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Carol and Cadence

New poems: MDCCCCII-MDCCCCVII: By John Payne
Payne, John (1842-1916)

collapse section 
[section]
  
SONGBIRDS.
collapse section 
THE BOOK OF DAYS AND NIGHTS.
collapse section 
THE BOOK OF DAYS AND NIGHTS.
 1. 
1.
 2. 
2.
 3. 
3.
 4. 
4.
 5. 
5.
 6. 
6.
 7. 
7.
 8. 
8.
 9. 
9.
 10. 
10.
 11. 
11.
 12. 
12.
 13. 
13.
 14. 
14.
 15. 
15.
 16. 
16.
 17. 
17.
 18. 
18.
 19. 
19.
 20. 
20.
 21. 
21.
 22. 
22.
 23. 
23.
 24. 
24.
 25. 
25.
 26. 
26.
 27. 
27.
 28. 
28.
 29. 
29.
 30. 
30.
 31. 
31.
 32. 
32.
 33. 
33.
 34. 
34.
 35. 
35.
 36. 
36.
 37. 
37.
 38. 
38.
expand section 
THE BOOK OF BIRDS.
expand section 
THE BOOK OF BEASTS.
expand section 
LONDON VOICES.
expand section 
BALLADS AND ROMANCES.
expand section 
SONNETS.
expand section 
TIME AND TIDE.
expand section 
THE MINSTREL'S BOOK.
expand section 
SONGS OF THE MORROW.

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section Carol and Cadence
next section
28

26.

Among the yellow blades,
Red in the ripening corn, the poppy flames and fades,
Strange flower, that stains the world with gouts of gore and deep
In whose dead ashes lies concealed the soul of Sleep.
Bitter as Birth its scent
And bitter is its taste as Death the Omnipotent;
For Life that double draught of bitterness must drink,
Ere in Sleep's surgeless sea of solace it may sink.
Red is it even as blood
And like a bannered host the fields doth overflood.
Peace, as with war, it brings, like Him who thought, the Lord,
Peace unto men to bring and brought withal a sword.
previous section Carol and Cadence
next section