Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 38. THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913)


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SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 38. THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, by                    
First Line: At last against the conquerors of the world
Last Line: Save black heaven,—and the interminable snow.
Subject(s): Napoleon I - Invasion Of Russia


At last against the conquerors of the world
Nature took arms and fought. The circling storm
Was deadlier than the mêlée fierce and warm,
And snow-shafts than fire-bolts against them hurled.
Some sank beneath the drift and some slept curled
In hollows, till the white cloud hid each form;
Some staggered wildly onward arm in arm,
With the tricoloured standards dank and furled.

Napoleon gazed around,—and where were they,
The helmets and great epaulettes of red,
Whose sheen and flame through many a bloody day
Had been his rapture? At his feet one dead
Drummer lay stark. Then nought above, below,
Save black heaven,—and the interminable snow.





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