The Sky-Sent Death

"A German aeroplane flew over Greek territory dropping a bomb which killed a shepherd."     'Sitting on a stone a Shepherd,     Stone and Shepherd sleeping,     Under the high blue Attic sky;     Along the green monotony     Grey sheep creeping, creeping'.     Deep down on the hill and valley,     At the bottom of the sunshine,     Like great Ships in clearest water,     Water holding anchored Shadows,     Water without wave or ripple,     Sunshine deep and clear and heavy,     Sunshine like a booming bell     Made of purest golden metal,     White Ships heavy in the sky     Sleep with anchored shadow.     Pipe a song in that still air     And the song would be of crystal     Snapped in silence, or a bronze vase     Smooth and graceful, curved and shining.     Tell an old tale or a history;     It would seem a slow Procession     Full of gestures; limbs and torso     White and rounded in the sunlight.     'Sitting on a stone a Shepherd,     Stone and Shepherd sleeping,     Like a fragment of old marble     Dug up from the hillside shadow'.     In the sunshine deep and soundless     Came a faint metallic humming;     In the sunshine clear and heavy     Came a speck, a speck of shadow -     Shepherd lift your head and listen,     Listen to that humming Shadow!     'Sitting on a stone the Shepherd,     Stone and Shepherd sleeping     In a sleep dreamless as water,     Water in a white glass beaker,     Clear, pellucid, without shadow;     Underneath a sky-blue crystal     Sees his grey sheep creeping'.     In the sunshine clear and heavy     Shadow-fled a dark hand downward:     In the sunshine deep and soundless     Burst a star-dropt thing of thunder -     Smoked the burnt blue air's torn veiling     Drooping softly round the hillside.     Boomed the silence in returning     To the crater in the hillside,     To the red earth fresh and bleeding,     To the mangled heap remaining:     Far away that humming Shadow     Vanished in the azure distance.     'Sitting on a stone no Shepherd,     Stone and Shepherd sleeping,     But across the hill and valley     Grey sheep creeping, creeping,     Standing carven on the sky-line,     Scattering in the open distance,     Free, in no man's keeping'.