Page:The Muse in Arms, Osborn (ed), 1917.djvu/80

 XVII

Therefore is the name of it called Babel

ND still we stood and stared far down

Into that ember-glowing town

Which every shaft and shock of fate

Had shorn unto its base. Too late

Came carelessly Serenity.

Now torn and broken houses gaze

On to the rat-infested maze

That once sent up rose-silver haze

To mingle through eternity.

The outlines, once so strongly wrought,

Of city walls, are now a thought

Or jest unto the dead who fought

Foundation for futurity.

The shimmering sands where once there played

Children with painted pail and spade

Are drearly desolate,—afraid

To meet Night's dark humanity,

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