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A WATCH IN THE NIGHT
By A. C. Swinburne
- Watchman, what of the night? —
- Storm and thunder and rain,
- Lights that waver and wane,
- Leaving the watchfires unlit.
- Only the balefires are bright,
- And the flash of the lamps now and then
- From a palace where spoilers sit,
- Trampling the children of men.
- Prophet, what of the night? —
- I stand by the verge of the sea,
- Banished, uncomforted, free,
- Hearing the noise of the waves
- And sudden flashes that smite
- Some man's tyrannous head,
- Thundering, heard among graves
- That hide the hosts of his dead.
- Mourners, what of the night? —
- All night through without sleep
- We weep, and we weep, and we weep.
- Who shall give us our sons?
- Beaks of raven and kite,
- Mouths of wolf and of hound,
- Give us them back whom the guns
- Shot for you dead on the ground.
- Dead men, what of the night? —
- Cannon and scaffold and sword,
