April Twilights and Other Poems

<h3><SPAN name="POPPIES_ON_LUDLOW_CASTLE" id="POPPIES_ON_LUDLOW_CASTLE"></SPAN>POPPIES ON LUDLOW CASTLE</h3> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="letra">T</span>hrough halls of vanished pleasure,<br/></span> <span class="i6">And hold of vanished power,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And crypt of faith forgotten,<br/></span> <span class="i6">I came to Ludlow tower.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">A-top of arch and stairway,<br/></span> <span class="i6">Of crypt, and donjon cell,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of council hall, and chamber,<br/></span> <span class="i6">Of wall, and ditch, and well,<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">High over grated turrets<br/></span> <span class="i6">Where clinging ivies run,<br/></span> <span class="i0">A thousand scarlet poppies<br/></span> <span class="i6">Enticed the rising sun,<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Upon the topmost turret,<br/></span> <span class="i6">With death and damp below,&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Three hundred years of spoilage,&mdash;<br/></span> <span class="i6">The crimson poppies grow.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">This hall it was that bred him,<br/></span> <span class="i6">These hills that knew him brave,<br/></span> <span class="i0">The gentlest English singer<br/></span> <span class="i6">That fills an English grave.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_34" id="page_34">{34}</SPAN></span><br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">How have they heart to blossom<br/></span> <span class="i6">So cruel gay and red,<br/></span> <span class="i0">When beauty so hath perished<br/></span> <span class="i6">And valour so hath sped?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">When knights so fair are rotten,<br/></span> <span class="i6">And captains true asleep,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And singing lips are dust-stopped<br/></span> <span class="i6">Six English earth-feet deep?<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">When ages old remind me<br/></span> <span class="i6">How much hath gone for naught,<br/></span> <span class="i0">What wretched ghost remaineth<br/></span> <span class="i6">Of all that flesh hath wrought;<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Of love and song and warring,<br/></span> <span class="i6">Of adventure and play,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Of art and comely building,<br/></span> <span class="i6">Of faith and form and fray&mdash;<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">I’ll mind the flowers of pleasure,<br/></span> <span class="i6">Of short-lived youth and sleep,<br/></span> <span class="i0">That drank the sunny weather<br/></span> <span class="i6">A-top of Ludlow keep.<br/></span> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_35" id="page_35">{35}</SPAN></span></div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />