University of Virginia Library

2.

For all the earth, grown weary, sick, distressed
With bloody toil, now in the pause of rest
Beheld the work of war again begin,
The scourge of God returned. Long since akin
To war all hearts had grown; men had been born
Through whose whole life the earth had never worn
The look of peace; a generation bred
In battle, wrack, and flame, and nourished
With such like horrors into deadly mood:
And these in that first respite of their blood
Must clutch to them their iron arms again,
Resume their marches, slaughter, and be slain.
Loud-shouting war is here once more; loud war
Roars for more prey; the cannon-bearing car
Shall thunder through the land, career, and spread
Its nitrous vapours o'er the gory bed
Of battle, as the flying thunder wrack
Whirls through the space of heaven; the dreadful track
Of squadron rivers through battalion fields
Once more their eyes shall mark; the Fury yields
No hope, no change save that from life to death.
So be it, answered they, with quiet breath;
And took once more their places in the strife
Hopeless and careless; fate had set their life
This one mere task; their children would come next,
It was begun again. Thus unperplexed
The Antichrist they saw returned, and gave
Themselves to feed the iron-surging wave
That now was setting toward the Gallic shore
From Belgium to the Czar, resigned once more
To meet encroaching Fate with tranquil phlegm:
Scythe-stroke by scythe-stroke Death might gather them,
And year by year; it was begun once more.