Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern British Poetry. 1920.

Ford Madox Hueffer1873–1939

Clair de Lune

I SHOULD like to imagine

A moonlight in which there would be no machine-guns!

For, it is possible

To come out of a trench or a hut or a tent or a church all in ruins:

To see the black perspective of long avenues

All silent.

The white strips of sky

At the sides, cut by the poplar trunks:

The white strips of sky

Above, diminishing—

The silence and blackness of the avenue

Enclosed by immensities of space

Spreading away

Over No Man’s Land.…

For a minute…

For ten…

There will be no star shells

But the untroubled stars,

There will be no Very light

But the light of the quiet moon

Like a swan.

And silence.…

Then, far away to the right thro’ the moonbeams

“Wukka Wukka” will go the machine-guns,

And, far away to the left

Wukka Wukka.

And sharply,

Wuk … Wuk … and then silence

For a space in the clear of the moon.

I should like to imagine

A moonlight in which the machine-guns of trouble

Will be silent.…

Do you remember, my dear,

Long ago, on the cliffs, in the moonlight,

Looking over to Flatholme

We sat … Long ago!…

And the things that you told me…

Little things in the clear of the moon,

The little, sad things of a life.…

We shall do it again

Full surely,

Sitting still, looking over at Flatholme.

Then, far away to the right

Shall sound the Machine Guns of trouble

Wukka-wukka!

And, far away to the left, under Flatholme,

Wukka-wuk!…

I wonder, my dear, can you stick it?

As we should say: “Stick it, the Welch!”

In the dark of the moon,

Going over.…