Betwixt Two Seas Poems and Ballads (Written at Constantinople and Therapia). By Violet Fane [i.e. M. M. Lamb] |
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A DESERTED VILLAGE
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 | Betwixt Two Seas |  |
9
A DESERTED VILLAGE
Here, where but yesterday a village smiled,
How strange and pitiful, to-day, to see
Its dwellings, by Imperial decree,
Laid level with the earth! One lonely child,
Standing beside a heap of faggots, piled
A full foot higher than her fell'd roof-tree,—
Fondling a captured hoopooe, seems to be
The only human thing amidst the wild!
How strange and pitiful, to-day, to see
Its dwellings, by Imperial decree,
Laid level with the earth! One lonely child,
Standing beside a heap of faggots, piled
A full foot higher than her fell'd roof-tree,—
Fondling a captured hoopooe, seems to be
The only human thing amidst the wild!
The mighty forest, black against the glow
Of dying daylight, with its depths profound,
Its silences, its mysteries, around,
Fades into dreamland. Haply, even so
Some Hampshire hamlet may have look'd,—laid low
When our Red King prepared his hunting-ground!
Of dying daylight, with its depths profound,
Its silences, its mysteries, around,
Fades into dreamland. Haply, even so
Some Hampshire hamlet may have look'd,—laid low
When our Red King prepared his hunting-ground!
Forest of Belgrade, 1895.
| Betwixt Two Seas | |