Poems

<h4><SPAN name="THE_WIFE_OF_FLANDERS" id="THE_WIFE_OF_FLANDERS"></SPAN>THE WIFE OF FLANDERS</h4> <p>Low and brown barns thatched and repatched and tattered<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where I had seven sons until to-day,</span><br/> A little hill of hay your spur has scattered....<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">This is not Paris. You have lost the way.</span><br/> <br/> You, staring at your sword to find it brittle,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Surprised at the surprise that was your plan,</span><br/> Who shaking and breaking barriers not a little<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Find never more the death-door of Sedan.</span><br/> <br/> Must I for more than carnage call you claimant,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Paying you a penny for each son you slay?</span><br/> Man, the whole globe in gold were no repayment<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">For what <i>you</i> have lost. And how shall I repay?</span><br/> <br/> What is the price of that red spark that caught me<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">From a kind farm that never had a name?</span><br/> What is the price of that dead man they brought me?<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">For other dead men do not look the same.</span><br/> <br/> How should I pay for one poor graven steeple<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whereon you shattered what you shall not know,</span><br/> How should I pay you, miserable people?<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">How should I pay you everything you owe?34</span><br/> <br/> Unhappy, can I give you back your honour?<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though I forgave would any man forget?</span><br/> While all the great green land has trampled on her<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">The treason and terror of the night we met.</span><br/> <br/> Not any more in vengeance or in pardon<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">An old wife bargains for a bean that's hers.</span><br/> You have no word to break: no heart to harden.<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ride on and prosper. You have lost your spurs.</span><br/> <br/><br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />