Sonett-Forum

The Nadir

I

There is no moment in the life of man
More potent to subdue the stuff that binds
His manhood into one than that which finds
The work the founders of his race began,

And centuries enlarged, until its span
Encompasses a nation, bodies, minds
And institutions, scattered to the winds
Out of his life, of which it held the plan.

And with the sense of something sacred sold,
His heritage, and branded with the crime
Against the ages, from the lowest pit,

Gathered for judgment meet, his eyes behold,
Tier after tier upon the banks of time,
The generations of his fathers sit.


II

One moment and his reeling world has rolled
Back into ages now no longer fit
For human dwelling. Here exalted sit
The cruel strong, and, with the cunning bold,

Possess the mek's inheritance, and hold
The good man in subjection - ages knit
With blood and iron, and with arson lit,
Crusted with murder, wanton, fiere and cold.

And England, who so mightily championeth
That freedom forced from us (our guards were met,
And we went, speechless - to a living death)

- England - a new light breaking on me, set
My brain aworking - England lives! The breath
That moment spared I hold for England yet!