The Poetry Corner

Poland

By Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Augurs that watched archaic birds Such plumd prodigies might read, The eagles that were double-faced, The eagle that was black indeed; And when the battle-birds went down And in their track the vultures come, We know what pardon and what peace Will keep our little masters dumb. The men that sell what others make, As vultures eat what others slay, Will prove in matching plume with plume That naught is black and all is grey; Grey as those dingy doves that once, By money-changers palmed and priced, Amid the crash of tables flapped And huddled from the wrath of Christ. But raised for ever for a sign Since God made anger glorious, Where eagles black and vultures grey Flocked back about the heroic house, Where war is holier than peace, Where hate is holier than love, Shone terrible as the Holy Ghost An eagle whiter than a dove.