It freezes- all across a soundless sky
The birds go home. The governing dark’s begun:
The steadfast dark that waits not for a sun;
The ultimate dark wherein the race shall die.
Death, with his evil finger to his lip,
Leers in at human windows, turning spy
To learn the country where his rule shall lie
When he assumes perpetual generalship.
The undefeated enemy, the chill
That shall benumb the voiceful earth at last,
Is master of our moment, and has bound
The viewless wind it-self. There is no sound.
It freezes. Every friendly stream is fast.
It freezes; and the graven twigs are still.
(Hilaire Belloc)
More Poetry from Hilaire Belloc:
Hilaire Belloc Poems based on Topics: Home, Death & Dying, Birds, Countries, Enemy- Heroic Poem in Praise of Wine (Hilaire Belloc Poems)
- Lines to a Don (Hilaire Belloc Poems)
- The South Country (Hilaire Belloc Poems)
- Jim (Hilaire Belloc Poems)
- Matilda Who told Lies, and was Burned to Death (Hilaire Belloc Poems)
- To The Balliol Men Still In Africa (Hilaire Belloc Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Death & Dying Poems, Home Poems, Birds Poems, Countries Poems, Enemy PoemsBased on Keywords: voiceful, governing, undefeated, generalship, it-self