Near and Far (Blunden)/Inaccessibility in the Battlefield
Inaccessibility in the Battlefield
Forgotten streams, yet wishful to be known,
With humble moan
In rushy channels working, called us on;
These might have with as good result
Remained occult
And gray and dumb;
For where they curled and called we could not come.
With humble moan
In rushy channels working, called us on;
These might have with as good result
Remained occult
And gray and dumb;
For where they curled and called we could not come.
Some tottering hut they called the Moated Grange
Bade our Steps range
And cramped routine for rural loves exchange;
That thatchéd spectre might as well
With some fierce shell
Have sunk to earth;
A jealous god declined our going forth.
Bade our Steps range
And cramped routine for rural loves exchange;
That thatchéd spectre might as well
With some fierce shell
Have sunk to earth;
A jealous god declined our going forth.
And that delightful maybush, that above
The dead mill-drove
With rose-lipped courtesy and whispering love
Enchanted, was not ours to touch.
Between, this grutch,
This staring curse
Made a blind wall, and kept our lips averse.
The dead mill-drove
With rose-lipped courtesy and whispering love
Enchanted, was not ours to touch.
Between, this grutch,
This staring curse
Made a blind wall, and kept our lips averse.
The simple road proposed most kind desires
For further spires,
Hearths, garden-grots, dove-cots; but fang-fixed wires
And ambushed airy murder lay
All day, that way;
A simple road,—
The rampart where the fire-armed phantom strode.
For further spires,
Hearths, garden-grots, dove-cots; but fang-fixed wires
And ambushed airy murder lay
All day, that way;
A simple road,—
The rampart where the fire-armed phantom strode.