The Luxembourg stands stiff and clean,
The soldier trees propped, row on row;
Amputated limbs have left
Aesthetic stumps for leaves to grow.
How fine the mutilation blooms
Among the heroes, bough on bough;
Harmonious the measured growth
That ossifying lines endow.
Like graceful cripples, hedges lie
Behind their keepers, chain on chain;
Below the law, in spirit ground,
The cramped roots’ moans alone remain.