64484: The Morning Before The Battle

<p dir="ltr"> To-day, the fight: my end is very soon,<br> And sealed the warrant limiting my hours:<br> I knew it walking yesterday at noon<br> Down a deserted garden full of flowers.<br> ...Carelessly sang, pinned roses on my breast,<br> Reached for a cherry-bunch---and then, then, Death<br> Blew through the garden from the North and East<br> And blighted every beauty with chill breath.<br> I looked, and ah, my wraith before me stood,<br> His head all battered in by violent blows:<br> The fruit between my lips to clotted blood<br> Was transubstantiate, and the pale rose<br> Smelt sickly, till it seemed through a swift tear-flood<br> That dead men blossomed in the garden-close.</p>