C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux (Robinson-Darmesteter) (18571944)
Poems of the Great War: Belgium the Bar-lass
T
She sang. Her maidens spun. A peaceful scene.
Their foes come crashing through the outer hall.
… Someone has stolen the bolt that bars the door!
Nothing! An open door, an open grave!
(A girl’s arm, white as milk, alive and warm)
“’Twill hold,” she said, “until they break the bone—
She said no more, because the thrust was there.
Oft have I heard that tale of Scotland’s King
The Poet, and Kate the Bar-lass. (Men will sing
Such moments are the ransom of our Earth.)
Who, when the treacherous Prussian tyrant hurled
So firm, to bolt our portals and withstand,
Thine arm, thy heart, thine act have won the day!