Peace and War.
Two Autumn Landscapes.
I.
Thin yellow leaves are waving in the sun,1
Thin red leaves tremble on the garden wall,2
A cold dew beads upon the last pale rose,3
That e’er another hour will shake and fall.4
Gay past my window, heedless of next frost,5
Flit the bright coloured wandering butterflies ;6
The stillness and the calm of Autumn time7
Upon the changing misty woodland lies.8
And on the yellowing bough of the ash-tree9
The little robin with a ruddier breast10
Sits singing now with heedless child’s delight11
Of Autumn’s soothing hours of ease and rest.12
Peace and Content, like children hand in hand,13
Walk by the woodside through the rustling leaves ;14
Nature seems dreaming of the golden age,15
When joyous days but led to merrier eves.16
II.
Another scene, and in another land,17
A sullen sky of boding thundercloud,18
That broods upon the long, long poplar rows,19
And gathers hill by hill within its shroud.20
Under the vineyard, torn in gaps with shot,21
Nestles a cottage, once so trim and neat ;22
But now across the shattered smouldering floor23
There are the crimson prints of trampling feet.24
And by the riven wall that’s in a flame,25
There lies an old man, with his long grey hair26
Steeped in his children’s blood. ’Twas well he died27
Before he saw red Murder riot there.28
And in the distance through the sloping vines,29
The bayonets glance, and one quick angry drum30
Answers a calling bugle ; and a horse,31
Now riderless, flies fast from where the foemen come.32