Poems By Richard Chenevix Trench: New ed |
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LINES WRITTEN ON THE FIRST TIDINGS OF THE CABUL MASSACRES. |
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31
LINES WRITTEN ON THE FIRST TIDINGS OF THE CABUL MASSACRES.
January 1842.
We sat our peaceful hearths beside,
Within our temples hushed and wide
We worshipped without fear:
With solemn rite, with festal blaze,
We welcomed in the earliest days
Of this new-coming year.
Within our temples hushed and wide
We worshipped without fear:
With solemn rite, with festal blaze,
We welcomed in the earliest days
Of this new-coming year.
O ye that died, brave hearts and true,
How in those days it fared with you
We did not then surmise;
That bloody rout which still must seem
The fancy of a horrid dream,
Was hidden from our eyes:
How in those days it fared with you
We did not then surmise;
That bloody rout which still must seem
The fancy of a horrid dream,
Was hidden from our eyes:
But haunts us now by day and night
The vision of that ghastly flight,
Its shapes of haggard fear:
While still from many a mourning home
The wails of lamentation come,
And fill our saddened ear.
The vision of that ghastly flight,
Its shapes of haggard fear:
While still from many a mourning home
The wails of lamentation come,
And fill our saddened ear.
32
O England, bleeding at thy heart
For thy lost sons, a solemn part
Doth Heaven to thee assign.
High wisdom hast thou need to ask,
For vengeance is a fearful task,
And yet that task is thine.
For thy lost sons, a solemn part
Doth Heaven to thee assign.
High wisdom hast thou need to ask,
For vengeance is a fearful task,
And yet that task is thine.
Oh then fulfil it, not in pride,
Nor aught to passionate hate allied;
But know thyself to be
The justicer of righteous Heaven;
That unto thee a work is given,
A burden laid on thee.
Nor aught to passionate hate allied;
But know thyself to be
The justicer of righteous Heaven;
That unto thee a work is given,
A burden laid on thee.
So thine own heart from guilty stains
First cleanse, and then, for what remains,
That do with all thy might;
That with no faltering hand fulfil,
With no misgiving heart or will,
As dubious of the right:
First cleanse, and then, for what remains,
That do with all thy might;
That with no faltering hand fulfil,
With no misgiving heart or will,
As dubious of the right:
That do, not answering wrong for wrong,
But witnessing that truth is strong,
And, outraged, bringeth woe.
'Tis this by lessons sad and stern,
To men who no way else would learn,
Which thou art set to show.
But witnessing that truth is strong,
And, outraged, bringeth woe.
'Tis this by lessons sad and stern,
To men who no way else would learn,
Which thou art set to show.
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