H. P. Lovecraft

THE COMPLETE POETRY of H. P. Lovecraft
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The Peace Advocate

Written: May 1917

First Published in The Tryout, Vol. 3, No. 6 (May 1917), Pages 12-14

(Supposed to be a “pome”, but cast strictly in modern metre.)

 The vicar sat in the firelight’s glow,
 A volume in his hand;
 And a tear he shed for the widespread woe,
 And the anguish brought by the vicious foe
 That overran the land.
 But ne’er a hand for his King rais’d he,
 For he was a man of peace;
 And he car’d not a whit for the victory
 That must come to preserve his nation free,
 And the world from fear release.
 His son had buckled on his sword,
 The first at the front was he;
 But the vicar his valiant child ignor’d,
 And his noble deeds in the field deplor’d,
 For he knew not bravery.
 On his flock he strove to fix his will,
 And lead them to scorn the fray.
 He told them that conquest brings but ill;
 That meek submission would serve them still
 To keep the foe away.
 In vain did he hear the bugle’s sound
 That strove to avert the fall.
 The land, quoth he, is all men’s ground,
 What matter if friend or foe be found
 As master of us all?
 One day from the village green hard by
 The vicar heard a roar
 Of cannon that rivall’d the anguish’d cry
 Of the hundreds that liv’d, but wish’d to die
 As the enemy rode them o’er.
 Now he sees his own cathedral shake
 At the foeman’s wanton aim.
 The ancient tow’rs with the bullets quake;
 The steeples fall, the foundations break,
 And the whole is lost in flame.
 Up the vicarage lane file the cavalcade,
 And the vicar, and daughter, and wife
 Scream out in vain for the needed aid
 That only a regiment might have made
 Ere they lose what is more than life.
 Then quick to his brain came manhood’s (...)
(......)