Let me lament the exodus of so many men from their time; <br />Let me lament the women whose warbling hearts now scream; <br />Every lament let me note and add to the list, <br />When young widows sit by lamplight mourning for husbands lost; <br />I hear the blonde-voiced children crying for God their father at bedtime; <br />On every mantelpiece stand photographs wreathed with ivy, smiling, true to the past; <br />At every window stand lonely girls whose burning eyes are bright with tears; <br />In every garden lilies are growing, as though there’s a grave to prepare; <br />In every street the cars are moving more slowly, as though to a funeral; <br />In every city of every land you can hear the passing-bell; <br />In every heart there’s a single plaint, <br />I hear it more clearly every day.<br /><br />Yvan Goll<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/requiem-for-the-dead-of-europe/
