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...A LITTLE GIRL'S PRAYER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD NORTH WIND TO DUTIFUL BEAST MIDWAY BETWEEN DIAL & FOOT OF GARDEN CLOCK by MARIANNE MOORE MY GARDEN by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN THE PROGRESS OF POESY; A PINDARIC ODE by THOMAS GRAY WHITTIER by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER |