posted on 2024-05-02, 18:52authored byFirst World War Poetry Digital Archive Project Team
They left their Babylon bare Of all its tall men, Of all its proud horses; They made for Lebanon. And shadowy sowers went Before their spears to sow The fruit whose taste is ash For Judah's soul to know. They who bowed to the Bull god Whose wings roofed Babylon, In endless hosts darkened The bright-heavened Lebanon. They washed their grime in pools Where laughing girls forgot The wiles they used for Solomon. Sweet laughter! remembered not. Sweet laughter charred in the flame That clutched the cloud and earth While Solomon's towers crashed between, The gird of Babylon's mirth.
History
Identifier
3293.txt
Creator
Rosenberg, Isaac (1890-1918)
Date
1977
Date Created
01/01/1977
Temporal Date
31/12/1977
Type
Poem
Rights
The Isaac Rosenberg Literary Estate. As published in Rosenberg, Isaac; Bottomley, Gordon [ed.]; Harding, Denys [ed.], The Collected Poems of Isaac Rosenberg. London: Chatto and Windus, 1977. Preliminaries and editorial matter omitted.