<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Desolation</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">OUT of the gutters and slums of Hell--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Disgorged from the vast infernal sewer-</p><p class="line">Vomited forth from a world where dwell</p><p class="line">Childhood, maidenhood, wifehood pure--</p><p class="line">She arose and towered on earth and sea,</p><p class="line">Clothed in her green putridity.</p><p class="line">She arose refreshed from a blissful dream</p><p class="line">Of anguished age and ravished youth,</p><p class="line">And innocence racked with woe extreme:</p><p class="line">She arose to make the dream a truth.</p><p class="line">And there where storied rivers ran,</p><p class="line">And the roots of cities were deep in time,</p><p class="line">And the ages pealed a mellow chime,</p><p class="line">And the rapt and kneeling spirit of man</p><p class="line">Had lifted far above dust and mire</p><p class="line">Adoring turret and suppliant spire,</p><p class="line">Her royal progress at last began.</p><p class="line">For the daughter of offal, the sister obscene</p><p class="line">Of whatever on earth is most unclean,</p><p class="line">The spawning mother of nameless things,</p><p class="line">Rode forth in a chariot drawn by Kings,</p><p class="line">And herself by Kings was hailed a Queen.</p><p class="line">She wafted, to east and west and south,</p><p class="line">Miasma foul, malaria fell,</p><p class="line">The carrion reek of her loathsome mouth,</p><p class="line">The breath of the gutters and slums of Hell.</p><p class="line">She beckoned the vulture poised in air ;</p><p class="line">He had long been stinted of dainties rare ;</p><p class="line">He was lean with famine and hoarse with drouth;</p><p class="line">She promised him rich and sumptuous fare.</p><p class="line">And around her she gathered many a Shape</p><p class="line">That now seemed man and anon seemed ape,</p><p class="line">And at heart was a dragon loosed from its lair.</p><p class="line">The things of beak and talon and maw,</p><p class="line">The creatures that know but one red law,</p><p class="line">They lagged not afar, they were not slack</p><p class="line">To answer her summons and follow her track ;</p><p class="line">And with hands of havoc she came to lay</p><p class="line">Old Art and Learning in ashes gray;</p><p class="line">She came to burn, she came to sack,</p><p class="line">She came to devour, deflower, and slay.</p><p class="line">She came to stretch all life on the rack,</p><p class="line">And hath she a peer or a fellow? Nay!</p><p class="line">The jungle's ambushed mouths of prey,</p><p class="line">Beside <em>her</em> savagery, what are they?</p><p class="line">Ounce and pard and panther lack</p><p class="line">The ensanguined lust that reddens her way.</p><p class="line">Their fury stops where the breakers play,</p><p class="line">But hers neither land nor sea can stay,</p><p class="line">And at deaths of lovers 'mid ocean-wrack</p><p class="line">Her soul makes merry, her heart is gay.</p><p class="line">O to behold her in sick dismay,</p><p class="line">By a hurricane Nemesis buffeted back</p><p class="line">On a ravaging plague-wind tempest-black,</p><p class="line">And the hounds of vengeance, a raging pack,</p><p class="line">At the heels of their quarry with jubilant bay ;</p><p class="line">Hunting her out of the light of day</p><p class="line">And into the pit she graced full well;</p><p class="line">Out of the world where children play,</p><p class="line">Back to the gutters and slums of Hell!</p></div></body></html> · Great War