 | Sketches of Natural History |  |
23
THE LOCUST.
The Locust is fierce, and strong, and grim,
And an armed man is afraid of him:
He comes like a winged shape of dread,
With his shielded back and his armed head,
And his double wings for hasty flight,
And a keen, unwearying appetite.
And an armed man is afraid of him:
He comes like a winged shape of dread,
With his shielded back and his armed head,
And his double wings for hasty flight,
And a keen, unwearying appetite.
He comes with famine and fear along,
An army a million million strong;
The Goth and the Vandal, and dwarfish Hun,
With their swarming people wild and dun,
Brought not the dread that the Locust brings,
When is heard the rush of their myriad wings.
An army a million million strong;
The Goth and the Vandal, and dwarfish Hun,
With their swarming people wild and dun,
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When is heard the rush of their myriad wings.
From the desarts of burning sand they speed,
Where the Lions roam and the Serpents breed,
Far over the sea, away, away!
And they darken the sun at noon of day.
Like Eden the land before they find,
But they leave it a desolate waste behind.
Where the Lions roam and the Serpents breed,
Far over the sea, away, away!
And they darken the sun at noon of day.
Like Eden the land before they find,
But they leave it a desolate waste behind.
The peasant grows pale when he sees them come,
And standeth before them weak and dumb;
For they come like a raging fire in power,
And eat up a harvest in half an hour;
And the trees are bare, and the land is brown,
As if trampled and trod by an army down.
And standeth before them weak and dumb;
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And eat up a harvest in half an hour;
And the trees are bare, and the land is brown,
As if trampled and trod by an army down.
There is terror in every monarch's eye,
When he hears that this terrible foe is nigh;
For he knows that the might of an armed host
Cannot drive the spoiler from out his coast,
And that terror and famine his land await;
That from north to south 'twill be desolate.
When he hears that this terrible foe is nigh;
For he knows that the might of an armed host
Cannot drive the spoiler from out his coast,
And that terror and famine his land await;
That from north to south 'twill be desolate.
Thus the ravening Locust is strong and grim;
And what were an armed man to him?
Fire turneth him not, nor sea prevents,
He is stronger by far than the elements!
The broad green earth is his prostrate prey,
And he darkens the sun at the noon of day!
And what were an armed man to him?
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He is stronger by far than the elements!
The broad green earth is his prostrate prey,
And he darkens the sun at the noon of day!
| Sketches of Natural History | |