Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO GORDON, LEAVING KHARTOUM, by GEORGE MACDONALD Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The silence of traitorous feet! Last Line: Where the thames and the clyde are flowing! Subject(s): Farewell; Friendship; God; Gordon, Charles George (1833-1885); Nile (river); War; Parting | ||||||||
THE silence of traitorous feet! The silence of close-pent rage! The roar, and the sudden heart-beat! And the shot through the true heart going, The truest heart of the age! And the Nile serenely flowing! Carnage and curses and cries! He utters never a word; Still as a child he lies; The wind of the desert is blowing Across the dead man of the Lord; And the Nile is softly flowing. But the song is stilled in heaven To welcome one more king: For the truth he hath witnessed and striven, And let the world go crowing, And Mammon's church-bell go ring, And the Nile blood-red go flowing! Man who hated the sword Yet wielded the sword and axe Farewell, O arm of the Lord, The Lord's own harvest mowing With a wind in the smoking flax Where our foul rivers are flowing! In war thou didst cherish peace, Thou slewest for love of life: Hail, hail thy stormy release Go home and await thy sowing, The patient flower of thy strife, Thy bread on the Nile cast flowing. Not thy earth to our earth alone, Thy spirit is left with us! Thy body is victory's throne, And our hearts around it are glowing: Would that we others died thus Where the Thames and the Clyde are flowing! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE CHILDREN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN STUDY #2 FOR B.B.L. by JUNE JORDAN WATCHING THE NEEDLEBOATS AT SAN SABBA by JAMES JOYCE SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES LOST AND FOUND by GEORGE MACDONALD THAT HOLY THING by GEORGE MACDONALD THE BABY, FR. AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND by GEORGE MACDONALD |
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