When with pale cheek and sunken eye I sang Unto the slumbering world at midnights hour, How it no more resounded with war's clang, And virtue was decayed in Peace's bower; How in these days no hero was abroad, But puny men, afraid of war's alarms, Stood forth to fight the battles of their Lord, Who scarce could stand beneath a hero's arms; A faint, reproachful, reassuring strain, From some harp's strings touched by unskilful hands Brought back the days of chivalry again, And the surrounding fields made holy lands. A bustling camp and an embattled host Extending far on either hand I saw, For I alone had slumbered at my post, Dreaming of peace when all around was war. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SAINT BRIDE'S LULLABY by WILLIAM SHARP NOTHING WILL DIE by ALFRED TENNYSON MY PRAYER by HENRY DAVID THOREAU A BIT OF MULL by FREDERICK HENRY HERBERT ADLER LONG AGO by CLARA EXLINE BOCKOVEN IN MEMORIAM A.M.W.; SEPTEMBER, 1910 (FOR A SOLEMN MUSIC) by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |