FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   >>  
PHIC VERSES COMPENSATION [73] The grime is on the window pane, Pale the London sunbeams fall, And show the smudge of mildew stain, Which lies on the distempered wall. I am a cripple, as you see, And here I lie, a broken thing, But God has given flight to me, That mocks the swiftest eagle wing. For if I will to see or hear, Quick as the thought my spirit flies, And lo! the picture flashes clear, Through all the mist of centuries. [74] I can recall the Tigris' strand, Where once the Turk and Tartar met, When the great Lord of Samarcand Struck down the Sultan Bajazet. Under a ten-league swirl of dust The roaring battle swings and sways, Now reeling down, now upward thrust, The crescent sparkles through the haze. I see the Janissaries fly, I see the chain-mailed leader fall, I hear the Tekbar clear and high, The true believer's battle-call. And tossing o'er the press I mark The horse-tail banner over all, [75] Shaped like the smudge of mildew dark That lies on the distempered wall. And thus the meanest thing I see Will set a scene within my brain, And every sound that comes to me, Will bring strange echoes back again. Hark now! In rhythmic monotone, You hear the murmur of the mart, The low, deep, unremitting moan, That comes from weary London's heart. But I can change it to the hum Of multitudinous acclaim, When triple-walled Byzantium, Re-echoes the Imperial name. [76] I hear the beat of armed feet, The legions clanking on their way, The long shout rims from street to street, With rolling drum and trumpet bray. So I hear it rising, falling, Till it dies away once more, And I hear the costers calling Mid the weary London roar. Who shall pity then the lameness, Which still holds me from the ground? Who commiserate the sameness Of the scene that girds me round? Though I lie a broken wreck, Though I seem to want for all, Still the world is at my beck And the ages at my call. THE BANNER OF PROGRESS [77] There's a banner in ou
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   >>  



Top keywords:

London

 
smudge
 

battle

 
street
 

Though

 

echoes

 
banner
 

distempered

 

broken

 

mildew


walled

 
Imperial
 

Byzantium

 

clanking

 

triple

 

legions

 

rhythmic

 
monotone
 

strange

 

murmur


change

 

multitudinous

 

VERSES

 

unremitting

 

acclaim

 
commiserate
 
sameness
 

PROGRESS

 
BANNER
 

ground


falling
 

rising

 

rolling

 

trumpet

 
costers
 

lameness

 

calling

 

strand

 
COMPENSATION
 

Tigris


recall

 
centuries
 

Tartar

 

Bajazet

 

league

 
Sultan
 

Struck

 
Samarcand
 

Through

 

swiftest