THEN the West answered: 'Is the sword's keen edge Like to the mind for sharpness? Doth the flame Devour like thought? Many with chariots came, Squadron and phalanx, legion, square, and wedge; They mounted up; they wound from ledge to ledge Of battle-glory dark with battle-shame; But God hath hurled them from the heights of fame Who from the soul took no eternal pledge. Because above her people and her throne She hath erected reason's sovereignty; Because wherever human speech is known The touch of English breath doth make thought free; Therefore forever is her glory blown About the hills, and flashed beneath the sea.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LAMENT FOR THE MAKARIS [WHEN HE WAS SEIK] by WILLIAM DUNBAR TO MUSIC [TO BECALM HIS FEVER] by ROBERT HERRICK THE DISCOVERY; SONNET by JOHN COLLINGS SQUIRE THE FISHERMAN by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE FOOL'S ADVENTURE by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE TO THE CASTLE OF DONEGAL by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM APRIL by OBADIAH CYRUS AURINGER THE GOLDEN ODES OF PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA: IMR EL KAIS by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |