The old houses of Flanders - Ford Madox Heuffer

The old houses of Flanders,
They watch by the high cathedrals;
They have eyes, mournful, tolerant and sardonic, for the ways of men,
In the high, white, tiled gables.
The rain and the night have settled down on Flanders;
It is all wetness and darkness; you can see nothing.
Then those old eyes, mournful, tolerant and sardonic,
Look at great, sudden, red lights.
Look upon the shades of the cathedral
And the golden rods of the illuminated rain,
For a second . . . .
And those old eyes,
Very old eyes that have watched the ways of men for generations,
Close for ever.
The high white shoulders of the gables
Slouch together for a consultation,
Slant drunkenly over in the lea of the flaming cathedrals.
They are no more, the old houses of Flanders.

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Ford Madox Ford, writing as Ford Madox Hueffer (real name Ford Hermann Hueffer) (1873 – 1939) England
Source: Blast War Number, No.2, July 1915, John Jane