I SAW the Conquerors riding by With trampling feet of horse and men: Empire on empire like the tide Flooded the world and ebbed again; A thousand banners caught the sun, And cities smoked along the plain, And laden down with silk and gold And heaped-up pillage groaned the wain. I saw the Conquerors riding by, Splashing through loathsome floods of war— The Crescent leaning o'er its hosts, And the barbaric scimitar,— And continents of moving spears, And storms of arrows in the sky, And all the instruments sought out By cunning men that men may die! I saw the Conquerors riding by With cruel lips and faces wan: Musing on kingdoms sacked and burned There rode the Mongol Ghengis Khan; And Alexander, like a god, Who sought to weld the world in one; And Cæsar with his laurel wreath; And like a thing from Hell the Hun; And, leading like a star the van, Heedless of upstretched arm and groan, Inscrutable Napoleon went Dreaming of empire, and alone ... Then all they perished from the earth As fleeting shadows from a glass, And, conquering down the centuries, Came Christ, the Swordless, on an ass! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AFTER TWO YEARS by RICHARD ALDINGTON HOW TO BE A POET (TO REMIND MYSELF) by WENDELL BERRY LETTER TO JOSEPH WARREN by ROBERT FROST A POEM FROM THE EDGE OF AMERICA by JAMES GALVIN BEARING LEAVES AGAIN by DAVID IGNATOW SEPULCHRE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TRANSPOSITIONS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SPECIAL PLEADING by SIDNEY LANIER STUDY FOR A GEOGRAPHICAL TRAIL; 3. WASHINGTON, D.C. by CLARENCE MAJOR |