After the Salvo



UP and down, up and down
They go, the gray rat, and the brown.
The telegraph lines are tangled hair,
Motionless on the sullen air
An engine has fallen on its back,
With crazy wheels, on a twisted track
All ground to dust is the little town.
Up and down, up and down
They go, the gray rat, and the brown
A skull, torn out of the graves near by,
Gapes in the grass. A butterfly,
In azure irridescence new,
Floats into the world, across the dew
Between the flow'rs. Have we lost our way,
Or are we toys of a god at play,
Who do these things on a young Spring day?

Where the salvo fell, on a splintered ledge
Of ruin, at the crater's edge,
A poppy lives: and young, and fair,
The dewdrops hang on the spider's stair,
With every rainbow still unhurt
From leaflet unto leaflet girt.
Man's house is crushed ; the spider's lives
Inscrutably He takes, and gives,
Who guards not any temple here,
Save the temple of the gossamer.

Up and down, up and down
They go, the gray rat and the brown:
A pistol cracks: they too are dead.
The nightwind rustles overhead.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 31, 2023

1:02 min read
81

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAbbccaAAddeefff ggbbhhiixx AAjj
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,027
Words 202
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 16, 10, 4

Herbert Asquith

The Hon. Herbert Asquith was an English poet, novelist and lawyer. more…

All Herbert Asquith poems | Herbert Asquith Books

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