England and Yesterday

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</SPAN></span> <h2>IN A RUIN, AFTER A THUNDERSTORM.</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">Keep of the Norman, old to flood and cloud!</div> <div class="verse">Thou dost reproach me with thy sunset look,</div> <div class="verse">That in our common menace, I forsook</div> <div class="verse">Hope, the last fear, and stood impartial proud:</div> <div class="verse">Almost, almost, while ether spake aloud,</div> <div class="verse">Death, from the smoking stones, my spirit shook</div> <div class="verse">Into thy hollow as leaves into a brook,</div> <div class="verse">No more than they by heaven’s assassins cowed.</div> <div class="verse">But now thy thousand-scarrèd steep is flecked</div> <div class="verse">With the calm kisses of the light delayed,</div> <div class="verse">Breathe on me better valour: to subject</div> <div class="verse">My soul to greed of life, and grow afraid</div> <div class="verse">Lest, ere her fight’s full term, the Architect</div> <div class="verse">See downfall of the stronghold that He made.</div> </div></div> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />