Alcaics

by Arthur Hugh Clough — a poem card from Justes Mots

Written in the classical alcaic meter, this vivid poem depicts an overwhelming military force descending upon an unsuspecting population with the fury of a natural disaster. The contrast between the pastoral innocence of a milkmaid and farmer's boy dreaming peacefully and the approaching destruction creates stark irony. Clough uses nature imagery to convey the terrible inevitability of warfare and violence.

So spake the voice: and as with a single life
Instinct, the whole mass, fierce, irretainable,
Down on that unsuspecting host swept;
Down, with the fury of winds, that all night
Upbrimming, sapping slowly the dyke, at dawn
Fall through the breach o'er holmstead and harvest; and
Heard roll a deluge: while the milkmaid
Trips i' the dew, and remissly guiding…

Themes: encouragement · graduation · new-chapter · recovery