HOW CAPTAIN SWORD WON A GREAT VICTORY.

Through fair and through foul went Captain Sword,

Pacer of highway and piercer of ford,

Steady of face in rain or sun,

He and his merry men, all as one;

Till they came to a place, where in battle-array

Stood thousands of faces, firm as they,

Waiting to see which could best maintain

Bloody argument, lords of pain;

And down the throats of their fellow-men

Thrust the draught never drunk again.

It was a spot of rural peace,

Ripening with the year's increase

And singing in the sun with birds,

Like a maiden with happy words —

With happy words which she scarcely hears

In her own contented ears,

Such abundance feeleth she

Of all comfort carelessly,

Throwing round her, as she goes,

Sweet half-thoughts on lily and rose,

Nor guesseth what will soon arouse

All ears — that murder's in the house;

And that, in some strange wrong of brain,

Her father hath her mother slain.

Steady! steady! The masses of men

Wheel, and fall in, and wheel again,

Softly as circles drawn with pen.

Then a gaze there was, and valour, and fear,

And the jest that died in the jester's ear,

And preparation, noble to see,

Of all-accepting mortality;

Tranquil Necessity gracing Force;

And the trumpets danc'd with the stirring horse;

And lordly voices, here and there,

Call'd to war through the gentle air;

When suddenly, with its voice of doom,

Spoke the cannon‘ twixt glare and gloom,

Making wider the dreadful room:

On the faces of nations round

Fell the shadow of that sound.

Death for death! The storm begins;

Rush the drums in a torrent of dins;

Crash the muskets, gash the swords;

Shoes grow red in a thousand fords;

Now for the flint, and the cartridge bite;

Darkly gathers the breath of the fight,

Salt to the palate and stinging to sight;

Muskets are pointed they scarce know where,

No matter: Murder is cluttering there.

Reel the hollows: close up! close up!

Death feeds thick, and his food is his cup.

Down go bodies, snap burst eyes;

Trod on the ground are tender cries;

Brains are dash'd against plashing ears;

Hah! no time has battle for tears;

Cursing helps better — cursing, that goes

Slipping through friends’ blood, athirst for foes’.

What have soldiers with tears to do?—

We, who this mad-house must now go through,

This twenty-fold Bedlam, let loose with knives —

To murder, and stab, and grow liquid with lives —

Gasping, staring, treading red mud,

Till the drunkenness’ self makes us steady of blood?

No time to be “breather of thoughtful breath”

Has the giver and taker of dreadful death.

See where comes the horse-tempest again,

Visible earthquake, bloody of mane!

Part are upon us, with edges of pain;

Part burst, riderless, over the plain,

Crashing their spurs, and twice slaying the slain.

See, by the living God! see those foot

Charging down hill — hot, hurried, and mute!

They loll their tongues out! Ah-hah! pell-mell!

Horses roll in a human hell;

Horse and man they climb one another —

Which is the beast, and which is the brother?

Mangling, stifling, stopping shrieks

With the tread of torn-out cheeks,

Drinking each other's bloody breath —

Here's the fleshliest feast of Death.

An odour, as of a slaughter-house,

The distant raven's dark eye bows.

Victory! victory! Man flies man;

Cannibal patience hath done what it can —

Carv'd, and been carv'd, drunk the drinkers down,

And now there is one that hath won the crown:

One pale visage stands lord of the board —

Joy to the trumpets of Captain Sword!

His trumpets blow strength, his trumpets neigh,

They and his horse, and waft him away;

They and his foot, with a tir'd proud flow,

Tatter'd escapers and givers of woe.

Open, ye cities! Hats off! hold breath!

To see the man who has been with Death;

To see the man who determineth right

By the virtue-perplexing virtue of might.

Sudden before him have ceas'd the drums,

And lo! in the air of empire he comes!

All things present, in earth and sky,

Seem to look at his looking eye.