Lucile [80]
him: her rocks rise to crush: And the lion and leopard, allied, lurk to rush On their startled invader. In lone Malabar, Where the infinite forest spreads breathless and far, 'Mid the cruel of eye and the stealthy of claw (Striped and spotted destroyers!) he sees, pale with awe, On the menacing edge of a fiery sky, Grim Doorga, blue-limb'd and red-handed, go by, And the first thing he worships is Terror. Anon, Still impell'd by necessity hungrily on, He conquers the realms of his own self-reliance, And the last cry of fear wakes the first of defiance. From the serpent he crushes its poisonous soul; Smitten down in his path see the dead lion roll! On toward Heaven the son of Alcmena strides high on The heads of the Hydra, the spoils of the lion: And man, conquering terror, is worshipp'd by man.
A camp has the world been since first it began! From his tents sweeps the roving Arabian; at peace, A mere wandering shepherd that follows the fleece; But, warring his way through a world's destinies, Lo from Delhi, from Bagdadt, from Cordova, rise Domes of empiry, dower'd with science and art, Schools, libraries, forums, the palace, the mart!
New realms to man's soul have been conquer'd. But those Forthwith they are peopled for man by new foes! The stars keep their secrets, the earth hides her own, And bold must the man be that braves the Unknown! Not a truth has to art or to science been given, But brows have ached for it, and souls toil'd and striven; And many have striven, and many have fail'd, And many died, slain by the truth they assail'd, But when Man hath tamed Nature, asserted his place And dominion, behold! he is brought face to face With a new foe--himself! Nor may man on his shield Ever rest, for his foe is ever afield, Danger ever at hand, till the armed Archangel Sound o'er him the trump of earth's final evangel.
II.
Silence straightway, stern Muse, the soft cymbals of pleasure, Be all bronzen these numbers, and martial the measure! Breathe, sonorously breathe, o'er the spirit in me One strain, sad and stern, of that deep Epopee Which thou, from the fashionless cloud of far time, Chantest lonely, when Victory, pale, and sublime In the light of the aureole over her head, Hears, and heeds not the wound in her heart fresh and red. Blown wide by the blare of the clarion, unfold The shrill clanging curtains of war! And behold A vision! The antique Heraclean seats; And the long Black Sea billow that once bore those fleets, Which said to the winds, "Be ye, too, Genoese!" And the red angry sands of the chafed Cheronese; And the two foes of man, War and Winter, allied Round the Armies of England and France, side by side Enduring and dying (Gaul and Briton abreast!) Where the towers of the North fret the skies of the East.
III.
Since that sunrise which rose through the calm linden stems O'er Lucile and Eugene, in the garden of Ems, Through twenty-five seasons encircling the sun, This planet of ours on its pathway hath gone, And the fates that I sing of have flowed with the fates Of a world, in the red wake of war, round the gates Of that doom'd and heroical city, in which (Fire crowning the rampart, blood bathing the ditch!), At bay, fights the Russian as some hunted bear, Whom the huntsmen have hemm'd round at last in his lair.
IV.
A fang'd, arid plain, sapp'd with underground fire, Soak'd with snow, torn with shot, mash'd to one gory mire! There Fate's iron scale hangs in horrid suspense, While those two famished ogres--the Siege, the Defence, Face to face, through a vapor frore, dismal, and dun, Glare, scenting the breath of each other. The one Double-bodied, two-headed--by separate ways Winding, serpent-wise, nearer; the other, each day's Sullen toil adding size to,--concentrated, solid, Indefatigable--the brass-fronted, embodied, And audible [Greek text omitted] gone sombrely forth To the world from
A camp has the world been since first it began! From his tents sweeps the roving Arabian; at peace, A mere wandering shepherd that follows the fleece; But, warring his way through a world's destinies, Lo from Delhi, from Bagdadt, from Cordova, rise Domes of empiry, dower'd with science and art, Schools, libraries, forums, the palace, the mart!
New realms to man's soul have been conquer'd. But those Forthwith they are peopled for man by new foes! The stars keep their secrets, the earth hides her own, And bold must the man be that braves the Unknown! Not a truth has to art or to science been given, But brows have ached for it, and souls toil'd and striven; And many have striven, and many have fail'd, And many died, slain by the truth they assail'd, But when Man hath tamed Nature, asserted his place And dominion, behold! he is brought face to face With a new foe--himself! Nor may man on his shield Ever rest, for his foe is ever afield, Danger ever at hand, till the armed Archangel Sound o'er him the trump of earth's final evangel.
II.
Silence straightway, stern Muse, the soft cymbals of pleasure, Be all bronzen these numbers, and martial the measure! Breathe, sonorously breathe, o'er the spirit in me One strain, sad and stern, of that deep Epopee Which thou, from the fashionless cloud of far time, Chantest lonely, when Victory, pale, and sublime In the light of the aureole over her head, Hears, and heeds not the wound in her heart fresh and red. Blown wide by the blare of the clarion, unfold The shrill clanging curtains of war! And behold A vision! The antique Heraclean seats; And the long Black Sea billow that once bore those fleets, Which said to the winds, "Be ye, too, Genoese!" And the red angry sands of the chafed Cheronese; And the two foes of man, War and Winter, allied Round the Armies of England and France, side by side Enduring and dying (Gaul and Briton abreast!) Where the towers of the North fret the skies of the East.
III.
Since that sunrise which rose through the calm linden stems O'er Lucile and Eugene, in the garden of Ems, Through twenty-five seasons encircling the sun, This planet of ours on its pathway hath gone, And the fates that I sing of have flowed with the fates Of a world, in the red wake of war, round the gates Of that doom'd and heroical city, in which (Fire crowning the rampart, blood bathing the ditch!), At bay, fights the Russian as some hunted bear, Whom the huntsmen have hemm'd round at last in his lair.
IV.
A fang'd, arid plain, sapp'd with underground fire, Soak'd with snow, torn with shot, mash'd to one gory mire! There Fate's iron scale hangs in horrid suspense, While those two famished ogres--the Siege, the Defence, Face to face, through a vapor frore, dismal, and dun, Glare, scenting the breath of each other. The one Double-bodied, two-headed--by separate ways Winding, serpent-wise, nearer; the other, each day's Sullen toil adding size to,--concentrated, solid, Indefatigable--the brass-fronted, embodied, And audible [Greek text omitted] gone sombrely forth To the world from