When London Calls



They leave us - artists, singers, all -
   When London calls aloud,
Commanding to her Festival
   The gifted crowd.

She sits beside the ship-choked Thames,
   Sad, weary, cruel, grand;
Her crown imperial gleams with gems
   From many a land.

From overseas, and far away,
   Come crowded ships and ships -
Grim-faced she gazes on them; yea,
   With scornful lips.

The garden of the earth is wide;
   Its rarest blooms she picks
To deck her board, this haggard-eyed
   Imperatrix.

Sad, sad is she, and yearns for mirth;
   With voice of golden guile
She lures men from the ends of earth
   To make her smile.

The student of wild human ways
   In wild new lands; the sage
With new great thoughts; the bard whose lays
   Bring youth to age;

The painter young whose pictures shine
   With colours magical;
The singer with the voice divine -
   She lures them all.

But all their new is old to her
   Who bore the Anakim;
She gives them gold or Charon's fare
   As suits her whim.

Crowned Ogress - old, and sad, and wise -
   She sits with painted face
And hard, imperious, cruel eyes
   In her high place.

To him who for her pleasure lives,
   And makes her wish his goal,
A rich Tarpeian gift she gives -
   That slays his soul.

The story-teller from the Isles
   Upon the Empire's rim,
With smiles she welcomes - and her smiles
   Are death to him.

For Her, whose pleasure is her law,
   In vain the shy heart bleeds -
The Genius with the Iron jaw
   Alone succeeds.

And when the Poet's lays grow bland,
   And urbanised, and prim -
She stretches forth a jewelled hand
   And strangles him.

She sits beside the ship-choked Thames
   With Sphinx-like lips apart -
Mistress of many diadems -
   Death in her heart!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:31 min read
37

Quick analysis:

Scheme abcb Dede fgfg hxhd ijij klkl mcma xnxn opop qrqr snsn tutu enen Dvdv
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,661
Words 303
Stanzas 14
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Victor James Daley

Victor James William Patrick Daley was an Australian poet. more…

All Victor James Daley poems | Victor James Daley Books

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