Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/202

192 IV

when the shadow of the sun's eclipse

Sweeps on the earth, and spreads a spectral air,

As if the universe were dying there,

On continent and isle the darkness dips,

Unwonted gloom, and on the Atlantic slips;

So in the night the Belgian cities flare

Horizon-wide; the wandering people fare

Along the roads, and load the fleeing ships.

And westward borne that planetary sweep,

Darkening o'er England and her times to be,

Already steps upon the ocean-deep!

Watch well, my country, that unearthly sea,

Lest when thou thinkest not, and in thy sleep,

for war, that gloom enshadow thee!