The Advice Of Treachery

Leon Gellert 1892 (Australia) – 1977



This well-feigned trance, this still and
stupored sleep
is aptly timed, and nobly fits the scheme.
The cloud-encircled Sword with Night may creep
Beside the gates, and catch the world adream,
Snatching as life before the sluggish breath
Awakes to morning and to vultured death,
Till Craft appeared, the blunted Grecian spears
That scratched at Troy, and all the blistered
Hands
That tore at stones and prayed upon the sands
Were weak and vain, and vain the bloody years.
Oh, let the winds take up the heavy tones
Of sleeping. Move within a mist! Shun light!
Then swing the hidden weapon once, and smite,
And gaze with laughter on the slaughtered throne.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
107

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBCDDEFGGEHIAJ
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 646
Words 114
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16

Leon Gellert

Leon Maxwell Gellert was an Australian poet. He was born in Walkerville, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. He was subjected to bullying by his father, a Methodist of Hungarian extraction, to which he reacted by learning self-defence at the YMCA. After an education at Adelaide High School, he embarked on a teaching career; first as a student-teacher at Unley High School then at the University of Adelaide's Teacher Training College. He enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces 10th Battalion within weeks of the outbreak of the Great War and sailed for Cairo on 22 October 1914. He landed at Ari Burnu Beach, Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, was wounded and repatriated as medically unfit in June 1916. He attempted to re-enlist but was soon found out. He returned to teaching at Norwood Public School. During periods of inactivity he had been indulging his appetite for writing poetry. Songs of a Campaign was his first published book of verse, and was favourably reviewed by The Bulletin. Angus & Robertson soon published a new edition, illustrated by Norman Lindsay. His second, The Isle of San, also illustrated by Lindsay, was not so well received however. more…

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