I
I SHOULD like to imagine | |
| A moonlight in which there would be no machine-guns! | |
| |
| For, it is possible | |
| To come out of a trench or a hut or a tent or a church all in ruins: | |
| To see the black perspective of long avenues | 5 |
| All silent. | |
| The white strips of sky | |
| At the sides, cut by the poplar trunks: | |
| The white strips of sky | |
| Above, diminishing— | 10 |
| The silence and blackness of the avenue | |
| Enclosed by immensities of space | |
| Spreading away | |
| Over No Man's Land.... | |
| |
| For a minute... | 15 |
| For ten... | |
| There will be no star shells | |
| But the untroubled stars, | |
| There will be no Very light | |
| But the light of the quiet moon | 20 |
| Like a swan. | |
| And silence.... | |
| |
| Then, far away to the right thro' the moonbeams | |
| "Wukka Wukka" will go the machine-guns, | |
| And, far away to the left | 25 |
| Wukka Wukka. | |
| And sharply, | |
| Wuk ... Wuk ... and then silence | |
| For a space in the clear of the moon. | |
| |
II
I should like to imagine | 30 |
| A moonlight in which the machine-guns of trouble | |
| Will be silent.... | |
| |
| Do you remember, my dear, | |
| Long ago, on the cliffs, in the moonlight, | |
| Looking over to Flatholme | 35 |
| We sat ... Long ago!... | |
| And the things that you told me... | |
| Little things in the clear of the moon, | |
| The little, sad things of a life.... | |
| |
| We shall do it again | 40 |
| Full surely, | |
| Sitting still, looking over at Flatholme. | |
| |
| Then, far away to the right | |
| Shall sound the Machine Guns of trouble | |
| Wukka-wukka! | 45 |
| And, far away to the left, under Flatholme, | |
| Wukka-wuk!... | |
| |
| I wonder, my dear, can you stick it? | |
| As we should say: "Stick it, the Welch!" | |
| In the dark of the moon, | 50 |
| Going over.... | |
