Page:A father of women, and other poems, Meynell, 1917.djvu/16

 SUMMER IN ENGLAND, 1914

N London fell a clearer light;

Caressing pencils of the sun

Defined the distances, the white

Houses transfigured one by one,

The "long, unlovely street" impearled.

O what a sky has walked the world!

Most happy year! And out of town

The hay was prosperous, and the wheat;

The silken harvest climbed the down;

Moon after moon was heavenly-sweet

Stroking the bread within the sheaves,

Looking twixt apples and their leaves.

And while this rose made round her cup,

The armies died convulsed. And when

This chaste young silver sun went up

Softly, a thousand shattered men,

One wet corruption, heaped the plain,

After a league-long throb of pain.

Flower following tender flower; and birds,

And berries; and benignant skies

Made thrive the serried flocks and herds.—

Yonder are men shot through the eyes.

Love, hide thy face

From man's unpardonable race. 12