57420: 1914

<p dir="ltr">War broke: and now the Winter of the world<br>With perishing great darkness closes in.<br>The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,<br>Is over all the width of Europe whirled,<br>Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled<br>Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin<br>Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.<br>The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.</p><p dir="ltr"><br>For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,<br>And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,<br>An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,<br>A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.<br>But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need<br>Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.</p>