Classic and Contemporary Poetry
QUERY, by HELEN SLACK WICKENDEN First Line: Why did you leave the lemon grove Last Line: And the twisted olive tree? Subject(s): Ethiopia | ||||||||
Why did you leave the lemon grove And the twisted olive tree? I stood by the listening water, Hearing the tread of determined feet, Watching you off to war, Young, laughing, loving, An endless line, Creeping sinuously, Curling dragon-like Over the hills blue with cypresses, Past the villas, old and crumbling, Down to the rim of the sea. On you went to a land that was all unknown, On where the roads led nowhere, And the sun no solace was, Where the rain battered the turf without pity, Where the camel turned with an unsuspecting smile, As the enemy, child-fashion, gazed up at you, From tangles of yellow grass. Ethiopia! A small black figure nailed to a new cross! I, even I, who loved you, cry in my heart, Why did you leave the lemon grove And the twisted olive tree? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GHOSTS WALK UPON THEIR GRAVES by NEAL GALLATIN ETHIOPIA by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER RESTLESS by EDWARD MERRILL ROOT CATTLE FROM ETHIOPIA by YAHYA FREDERICKSON FAMINE: ETHIOPIA HITS THE TV NEWS AGAIN by ANN S. GOLDSMITH FASCISTS INTO ETHIOPIA by EDWARD SANDERS OF THE WARS IN IRELAND by JOHN HARRINGTON THE POET'S SONG FOR HIS WIFE by BRYAN WALLER PROCTER |
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