Versos English Frederic Manning GROTESQUE

English poem

GROTESQUE

by

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These are the damned circles Dante trod, Terrible in hopelessness, But even skulls have their humour, An eyeless and sardonic mockery: And we, Sitting with streaming eyes in the acrid smoke, That murks our foul, damp billet, Chant bitterly, with raucous voices As a choir of frogs In hideous irony, our patriotic songs.