A BALLAD OF LONDON.
Bv E. Le Gallienne, in the London Daily’*’ Chronicle. Ah, London, London ! Our delight, Ba k flower that opens Bilt at night. Great city of the midnight sun. Whose dsy begins when day is done. Lamp after lamp Against the sky Opens a sudden Beaming eye: And like long rows of lilies stand Spectral along the haunted Strand. The human moths About the light ; I)ash and cling close { In dazed delight, And burn and laugh-the world and wife— For.this is London- this is life. Upon thy petals Butterflies, But at thy root, somo Say there lies A World of Weeping trodden things, Boor worms that haVo r.ot eyes or wings. From putefraction Of their woe. Sprang that ttrange flower That charms us so; Men die and rot deep out of sight To keep thii jungle-flower bright. Paris and London, World flowers twain, Wherewith the World-Tree Blooms again, Since time hath gathered Babylon, And withered Eome still withers on Sidon and Tyre Were such as ye. How bright they shoue Upon the Tree But Time ha'h gathered—both are gone And no man sails to Babylon.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 12
Word Count
188A BALLAD OF LONDON. New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 12
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