Father of Women and Other Poems — Summer in England, 1914

By dial of the clock 'Twas day in the dark above her lonely head.

"This day thou shalt be with Me."

Ere the cock Announced that day she met the Immortal Dead.

SUMMER IN ENGLAND, 1914

On 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.

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