HARK! through the city, quiet, cool, and starred, Longing for sleep and for repose in dreams, Dull rattling hoofs in hundreds echo hard: The deep reverberant groundswell upwards streams. Heavily the long cavalcade clatters and prances Through the dazzling glare of lamps, through shadows thickly scored, The sound in a broken rhythm quivers and dances, As the ponderous bulks in irregular trot move forward. Man's mighty slaves, now for a time set free, Pass from the city that they served so well, Churning to choppy waves its sombre sea, Beating harsh dissonances of farewell. Their steel-shod hoofs gleam bright as they move on To green-clad silent pastures in the sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO J. D. H. (KILLED AT SURREY C. H., OCTOBER, 1866) by SIDNEY LANIER NATURA NATURANS by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH TO THE NIGHTINGALE by ANNE FINCH ALL THINGS CAN TEMPT ME by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS WILLIE AND HELEN by HEW AINSLIE SONG OF THE ENGINE by ALEXANDER ANDERSON |