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The Souls of the Slain
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thing
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by
DJSmurf
Wed Jun 27 2001 at 18:48:00
THE SOULS OF THE SLAIN
Thomas Hardy
-
Poems of the Past and Present
I
The thick lids of
Night
closed upon me
Alone at the Bill
Of the Isle by the Race {1} -
Many-
cavern
ed,
bald
,
wrinkled
of face -
And with
darkness
and
silence
the
spirit
was on me
To
brood
and be still.
II
No
wind
fanned the flats of the
ocean
,
Or
promontory
sides,
Or the
ooze
by the strand,
Or the bent-bearded slope of the land,
Whose base took its rest amid everlong motion
Of criss-crossing
tide
s.
III
Soon from out of the Southward seemed nearing
A whirr, as of wings
Waved by mighty-vanned
flies
,
Or by night-
moths
of measureless size,
And in softness and smoothness well-nigh beyond hearing
Of
corporal
things.
IV
And they bore to the
bluff
, and alighted -
A dim-discerned
train
Of
sprites
without mould,
Frameless
souls
none might
touch
or might hold -
On the ledge by the turreted lantern, farsighted
By men of the main.
V
And I heard them say "Home!" and I knew them
For souls of the felled
On the
earth
's nether bord
Under
Capricorn
, whither they'd warred,
And I neared in my
awe
, and gave heedfulness to them
With
breath
ings inheld.
VI
Then, it seemed, there approached from the northward
A senior
soul
-
flame
Of the like filmy
hue
:
And he met them and spake: "Is it you,
O my men?" Said they, "Aye! We bear homeward and hearthward
To list to our fame!"
VII
"I've flown there before you," he said then:
"Your households are well;
But--your
kin
linger less
On your
glory
arid
war
-mightiness
Than on
dear
er things."--"Dearer?" cried these from the dead then,
"Of what do they tell?"
VIII
"Some mothers muse sadly, and murmur
Your doings as
boys
-
Recall the quaint ways
Of your
babyhood
's
innocent
days.
Some
pray
that, ere dying, your
faith
had grown firmer,
And higher your joys.
IX
"A
father
brood
s: 'Would I had set him
To some humble trade,
And so slacked his high fire,
And his
passion
ate
martial
desire
;
Had told him no
stories
to woo him and whet him
To this due
crusade
!"
X
"And, General, how hold out our sweethearts,
Sworn loyal as
doves
?"
--"Many
mourn
; many think
It is not
unattractive
to prink
Them in sables for
hero
es. Some fickle and fleet hearts
Have found them new loves."
XI
"And our wives?" quoth another resignedly,
"Dwell they on our deeds?"
--"Deeds of home; that live yet
Fresh as new--deeds of fondness or fret;
Ancient
words
that were
kind
ly expressed or
unkind
ly,
These, these have their heeds."
XII
--"Alas! then it seems that our
glory
Weighs less in their thought
Than our old homely acts,
And the long-ago commonplace
facts
Of our lives--held by us as scarce part of our story,
And rated as nought!"
XIII
Then
bitter
ly some: "Was it wise now
To raise the
tomb
-door
For such knowledge? Away!"
But the rest: "Fame we prized till to-day;
Yet that hearts keep us green for old kindness we prize now
A thousand times more!"
XIV
Thus speaking, the trooped apparitions
Began to disband
And resolve them in two:
Those whose record was
lovely
and
true
Bore to northward for home: those of bitter traditions
Again left the land,
XV
And, towering to seaward in legions,
They paused at a spot
Overbending the Race -
That engulphing, ghast, sinister place -
Whither
headlong
they plunged, to the fathomless regions
Of myriads
forgot
.
XVI
And the
spirits
of those who were homing
Passed on, rushingly,
Like the
Pentecost
Wind;
And the whirr of their wayfaring thinned
And surceased on the sky, and but left in the gloaming
Sea-mutterings and me.
December 1899.
Poems of the Past and Present
Dawn at The Wall
Sicknesses of the Soul
Hesitate
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