Come on Come back by Stevie Smith (1902-71) Left by the ebbing tide of battle On the field of Austerlitz The girl soldier Vaudevue sits Her fingers tap the ground, she is alone At midnight in the moonlight she is sitting alone on a round flat stone. Graded by the Memel Conference first Of all human exterminators M L 5 Has left her just alive Only her memory is dead for evermore. She fears and cries, Ah me, why am I here? Sitting alone on a round flat stone on a hummock there. Rising, staggering, over the ground she goes Over the seeming miles of rutted meadow To the margin of a lake The sand beneath her feet Is cold and damp and firm to the waves beat. Quickly - as a child, an idiot, as one without memory - She strips her uniform off, strips, stands and plunges Into the icy waters of the adorable lake. On the surface of the water lies A ribbon of white moonlight The waters on either side of the moony track Are black as her mind, Her mind is as secret from her As the water on which she swims, As secret as profound as ominous. Weeping bitterly for her ominous mind, her plight, Up the river of white moonlight she swims Until a treacherous undercurrent Seizing her in an icy amorous embrace Dives with her, swiftly severing The waters which close above her head. An enemy sentinel Finding the abandoned clothes Waits for the swimmers return (Come on, come back) Waiting, whiling away the hour Whittling a shepherds pipe from the hollow reeds. In the chill light of dawn Ring out the pipes wild notes Come on, come back. Vaudevue In the swift and subtle currents close embrace Sleeps on, stirs not, hears not the familiar tune Favourite of all the troops of all the armies Favourite of Vaudevue For she had sung it too Marching to Austerlitz, Come on, come back. Come on Come back by Stevie Smith - Reading https://youtube/watch?v=UtDCFH77X0o
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 01:04:35 +0000
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