I SING the Foot. Let every Muse's wing Arrange its quills and fan the classic lay -- For Phoeligbus had a foot -- and Venus blessed Had more than that, a foot and ancle too. Neptune, as Homer sung, could cause the shades, And woods, and mountains tremble with his step. Immortal was his foot-fall. Juno bright, Stampted, when she scolded forth in Jove's own court. 'T was Hebe's foot that bore the nectar round, And Jupiter's great toe that Mulciber Leaped from to Lemnos. -- But enough of all This heathen lore -- this pantheon exercise. What when the drum beats, and the panting ranks Are joining, closing, moving on the foe -- When the deep whisper speeds along the line, And all must "do or die" -- what onward moves The heart-pulse and the nerve, the ready hand, The eye determined, and the kindling soul! What urges up the bayonet -- what mounts The desperate height, the ladder and the breach, And tramples on the rended, blood-stained flag? What firmest paces on the rampart walk, Or softest trips it to a lady's bower, Or lightest sports it in the fairy dance, Or what, on provocation, first applies Its energies to kick a scamp down stairs? O Swift Achilles of the tender heel-- O well-shod Grecians of the classic boots, -- O Infantry of poets, to whose feet Nor boot, nor shoe, nor stocking e'er belonged, O Cinderella of the vitreous sock -- O Giant-killing Jack with seven leagued strides, Assist me to immortalize the foot. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 15. TO THE EVENING STAR by MARK AKENSIDE THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES by ALEXANDER ANDERSON GHOST-BEREFT; A SCENE FROM BOGLAND IN WAR-TIME by JANE BARLOW PSALM 130 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE LEADING OF SORROW by MATHILDE BLIND |