The Dirge

written by


« Reload image

  Out of the pregnant darkness, where from fire
  To glimmering fire the watchword leaps,
  The dirge floats up from those who build the pyre
  High and still higher
  That yet shall blaze across the verminous deeps.

  Farewell, O brother-heart,
  Yet we shall not forget;
  Though hand from hand must part,
  Your hope is with us yet.
  The clank of the swaggerer’s sword
  And clink of the grasper’s gold
  Are not so loud as the lover’s word
  In a thousand echoes rolled.

  The lords of the tottering order sit and plot,
  With cunning courtesy haggling still:
  The insistent chorus cannot be forgot
  Its words are shot
  Like summoning rockets from the eastern hill.

  You, it was you who showed
  How Murder made his pact
  In busy Greed’s abode,
  Preparing for the act.
  To save the fatherland
  They bade your comrades die,
  And full in their path you took your stand
  To kill the patriot lie.

  Now, lest their flags and bags be lost in flame.
  The desperate pair have summoned those
  Whose love is moderate and whose life is tame
  To quench in shame
  The light that streams where wind of warning blows.

  The ranks of freedom swell,
  The flag of love rolls out:
  The efficient ranks of hell
  Close up in deadly doubt.
  Moulded in battle’s mire,
  The bullet found its mark;
  A living spirit, winged with fire,
  Flares homeward from the dark.

© John Le Gay Brereton