Explore "Jezreel" by Thomas Hardy on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
ON ITS SEIZURE BY THE ENGLISH UNDER ALLENBY, SEPTEMBER 1918
DID they catch as it were in a Vision at shut of the day- / When their cavalry smote through the ancient Esdraelon Plain, / And they crossed where the Tishbite stood forth in his enemy's way- / His gaunt mournful Shade as he bade the King haste off amain?
On war-men at this end of time-even on Englishmen's eyes- / Who slay with their arms of new might in that long-ago place, / Flashed he who drove furiously?... Ah, did the phantom arise / Of that queen, of that proud Tyrian woman who painted her face?
Faintly marked they the words "Throw her down! " rise from Night / eerily, / Spectre-spots of the blood of her body on some rotten wall? / And the thin note of pity that came: "A King's daughter is she," / As they passed where she trodden was once by the chargers' footfall?
Could such be the hauntings of men of to-day, at the cease / Of pursuit, at the dusk-hour, ere slumber their senses could seal? / Enghosted seers, kings-one on horseback who asked "Is it peace? "... / Yea, strange things and spectral may men have beheld in Jezreel!