Ballade
Frederick William (FW) Harvey 1888 (Hartpury, Gloucestershire) – 1957 (Yorkley, Gloucestershire)
Bodies of comrade soldiers gleaming white
Within the mill-pool where you float and dive
And lounge around part-clothed or naked quite;
Beautiful shining forms of men alive,
O living lutes stringed with the senses five
For Love's sweet fingers; seeing Fate afar,
My very soul with Death for you must strive;
Because of you I loathe the name of War.
But O you piteous corpses yellow-black,
Rotting unburied in the sunbeam's light,
With teeth laid bare by yellow Hps curled back
Most hideously; whose tortured souls took
flight
Leaving your limbs, all mangled by the fight,
In attitudes of horror fouler far
Than dreams which haunt a devil's brain at
night;
Because of you I loathe the name of War.
Mothers and maids who loved you, and the wives
Bereft of your sweet presences; yea, all
Who knew you beautiful; and those small lives
Made of that knowledge; O, and you who call
For life (but vainly now) from that dark hall
Where wait the Unborn, and the loves which are
In future generations to befall;
Because of you I loathe the name of War,
l'envoi
Prince Jesu, hanging stark upon a tree
Crucified as the malefactors are
That man and man henceforth should brothers be;
Because of you I loathe the name of War.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 114 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ab abb cb D e ae xa ac xaD xf xf fc fD g cg D |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,217 |
Words | 217 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1 |
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"Ballade" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/14279/ballade>.
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