{"id":8945,"date":"2022-12-25T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=8945"},"modified":"2022-12-25T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T06:00:00","slug":"the-chimes-of-termonde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-chimes-of-termonde\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chimes of Termonde"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>From <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn82016014\/1914-12-25\/ed-1\/seq-4\/\">The Topeka State Journal, December 25, 1914<\/a>. By Grace Hazard Conkling.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>The groping spires have lost the sky,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That reach from Termonde town:<br\/>There are no bells to travel by,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The minster chimes are down.<br\/>It\u2019s forth we must, alone, alone,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And try to find the way;<br\/>The bells that we have always known,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;War broke their hearts today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They used to call the morning<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Along the gilded street,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And then their rhymes were laughter,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And all their notes were sweet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>I heard them stumble down the air<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Like seraphim betrayed;<br\/>God must have heard their broken prayer<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That made my soul afraid.<br\/>The Termonde bells are gone, are gone,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And what is left to say?<br\/>It\u2019s forth we must, by bitter dawn,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To try to find the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They used to call the children<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To go to sleep at night;<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And then their songs were tender<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And drowsy with delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>The wind will look for them in vain<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Within the empty tower.<br\/>We shall not hear them sing again<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;At dawn or twilight hour.<br\/>It\u2019s forth we must, away, away,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And far from Termonde town,<br\/>But this is all I know today\u2014<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The chimes, the chimes are down!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They used to ring at evening<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To help the people pray,<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Who wander now bewildered<br\/>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And cannot find the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Topeka State Journal, December 25, 1914. By Grace Hazard Conkling. The groping spires have lost the sky,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That reach from Termonde town:There are no bells to travel by,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The minster chimes are down.It\u2019s forth we must, alone, alone,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And try to find the way;The bells that we have always known,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;War broke their hearts today. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They used [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,21],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-8945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-the-topeka-state-journal","tag-grace-hazard-conkling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}