Читать книгу Come Hither: A Collection of Rhymes and Poems for the Young of All Ages - Various - Страница 106

Riding through Ruwu swamp, about sunrise,

I saw the world awake; and as the ray

Touched the tall grasses where they sleeping lay,

Lo, the bright air alive with dragonflies:

With brittle wings aquiver, and great eyes

Piloting crimson bodies, slender and gay.

I aimed at one, and struck it, and it lay

Broken and lifeless, with fast-fading dyes ...

Then my soul sickened with a sudden pain

And horror, at my own careless cruelty,

That in an idle moment I had slain

A creature whose sweet life it is to fly:

Like beasts that prey with tooth and claw ...

Nay, they

Must slay to live, but what excuse had I?

Francis Brett Young

94