The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb Quotes

“And a ton came down on a coloured road,
And a ton came down on a gaol,
And a ton came down on a freckled girl,
And a ton on the black canal,

And a ton came down on a hospital,
And a ton on a manuscript,
And a ton shot up through the dome of a church,
And a ton roared down to the crypt.

And a ton danced over the Thames and filled
A thousand panes with stars,
And the splinters leapt on the Surrey shore
To the tune of a thousand scars.”
― Mervyn Peake, The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb

“For your brain is alone now your passion goes,
And your coloured dreams run cold
And there's nothing left but a gaping skull
On the spine of the wounded world.

But we are well! O sailor! sailor!
O we are very well!
Do not tremble as you stand, O frightened sailor
For death is so mean and small.

It snatches away the burning breath
And it snatches the useless clay
But what can it do to halt the square-rigged
Soul as it steers away?”
― Mervyn Peake, The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb