The flying parliament, and other poems

THE FLYING PARLIAMENT AND OTHER POEMS
By EDWINA STANTON BABCOCK
NEW YORK JAMES T. WHITE & CO. 1918 COPYRIGHTED 1918 BY JAMES T. WHITE & CO DEDICATED TO CAROLINE LEXOW BABCOCK 1914-1918
Out past the Highlands’ smoke and Autumn gold, The great gray ships on secret orders steam; Battalioned boys their dawn-lit land behold Drifting astern, like towers in a dream; They watch the havened harbor lights that gleam Speechless farewell, too tender to be told— Until within their breasts austere and bold, The former days remote and alien seem, And they, the fathers of a Day supreme. Thus, visioning their service—to a man— They grim in their stern blitheness, sail to War. Yea, while we sleep, in one night’s star-lit span— Youth leaves our shores—to face the Minotaur.
A chill air emphasizes the weather stains on arcade and collonade. Now and then the pale sunlight glitters faintly on a bit of mosaic, but the lacy fretwork of St. Marks and the Palazzo Giustizia are nearly covered by sandbags and scaffoldings. The statues are all removed from their pedestals. The four famous bronze horses are once more removed; also the giants on the famous clock tower. The winged lion of St. Mark and the little St. Theodore and his crocodile have been carried to places of safety. From the bronze flagstaffs in the Piazza of St. Marks the Italian flags are flying. From afar off there comes the slow booming of guns. Suddenly the piazza is a whirl with pigeons. The guns sound like huge bass chords; the pigeon wings beat a curious suggestion of delicate pastoral themes. The canals are deserted except for one gondola slowly approaching a bridge. An American war correspondent wields the great oar unaccustomedly. The American steps out at a bridge; he makes fast the gondola; he walks slowly into the deserted piazza. Near the bronze base of the flagstaffs is a single child standing among the whirling pigeons. The child has a small bit of black bread in his hand; now and then he breaks off a tiny bit of the bread and throws it to the birds who come eagerly to him.