All night the ways of Heaven were desolate, Long roads across a gleaming empty sky. Outcast and doomed and driven, you and I, Alone, serene beyond all love or hate, Terror or triumph, were content to wait, We, silent and all-knowing. Suddenly Swept through the heaven low-crouching from on high, One horseman, downward to the earth's low gate. Oh, perfect from the ultimate height of living, Lightly we turned, through wet woods blossom-hung, Into the open. Down the supernal roads, With plumes a-tossing, purple flags far flung, Rank upon rank, unbridled, unforgiving, Thundered the black battalions of the Gods. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SECOND BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 12 by THOMAS CAMPION TO STATECRAFT EMBALMED by MARIANNE MOORE THE THREE HERMITS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE CLOUDS: SOCRATES' EXPERIMENTS by ARISTOPHANES SPANISH WINGS: SENORITA by H. BABCOCK ECLOGUE: FATHER COME HWOME by WILLIAM BARNES DIDO TO AENEAS by JOACHIM DU BELLAY |