After the Salvo
Herbert Asquith 1881 – 1947
UP and down, up and down
They go, the gray rat, and the brown.
The telegraph lines are tangled hair,
Motionless on the sullen air
An engine has fallen on its back,
With crazy wheels, on a twisted track
All ground to dust is the little town.
Up and down, up and down
They go, the gray rat, and the brown
A skull, torn out of the graves near by,
Gapes in the grass. A butterfly,
In azure irridescence new,
Floats into the world, across the dew
Between the flow'rs. Have we lost our way,
Or are we toys of a god at play,
Who do these things on a young Spring day?
Where the salvo fell, on a splintered ledge
Of ruin, at the crater's edge,
A poppy lives: and young, and fair,
The dewdrops hang on the spider's stair,
With every rainbow still unhurt
From leaflet unto leaflet girt.
Man's house is crushed ; the spider's lives
Inscrutably He takes, and gives,
Who guards not any temple here,
Save the temple of the gossamer.
Up and down, up and down
They go, the gray rat and the brown:
A pistol cracks: they too are dead.
The nightwind rustles overhead.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 1:02 min read
- 81 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAbbccaAAddeefff ggbbhhiixx AAjj |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,027 |
Words | 202 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 10, 4 |
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"After the Salvo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/19022/after-the-salvo>.
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