Christopher John Brennan

Here you will find the Poem The grand cortège of glory and youth is gone of poet Christopher John Brennan

The grand cortège of glory and youth is gone

The grand cortège of glory and youth is gone 
flaunt standards, and the flood of brazen tone: 
I alone linger, a regretful guest, 
here where the hostelry has crumbled down, 
emptied of warmth and life, and the little town 
lies cold and ruin'd, all its bravery done, 
wind-blown, wind-blown, where not even dust may rest. 
No cymbal-clash warms the chill air: the way 
lies stretch'd beneath a slanting afternoon, 
the which no piled pyres of the slaughter'd sun, 
no silver sheen of eve shall follow: Day, 
ta'en at the throat and choked, in the huge slum 
o' the common world, shall fall across the coast, 
yellow and bloodless, not a wound to boast. 
But if this bare-blown waste refuse me home 
and if the skies wither my vesper-flight, 
'twere well to creep, or ever livid night 
wrap the disquiet earth in horror, back 
where the old church stands on our morning's track, 
and in the iron-entrellis'd choir, among 
rust tombs and blazons, where an isle of light 
is bosom'd in the friendly gloom, devise 
proud anthems in a long forgotten tongue: 
so cozening youth's despair o'er joy that dies.