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It has been said that poets
dwell in the shadow which coming events cast before them: the following
curious lines which might have passed unnoticed in 1910, are significant
enough to-day:
Though not a different land, a different age
Is ours, a different stage:
New characters are on the scene-
Instead of peace, the bright steel's sheen-
In lieu of rest, mad Rage:
The warlike clarion's shrill alarms,
The ruthless power of deadly sin;
Round humble cots, round verdant farms
The roar of beasts, the clash of arms,
And o'er the land the battle's hideous din:
Thro' hill and dale a storm of discord whirls-
The rising smoke of Ruin curls-
Shrieks of the wounded, silence of the dead-
A 'more enlightened' age-of lead!
From The Poetry Review, London. |
