THEN rose a shout, As of a people long-time mute, which found A sudden voice and with it power. They cry Blending in one loud roar, the unnumbered sum Of petty dissonant lives, laughter and tears, Rage, terror, pleasure, triumph; mingled, blent In one consentient utterance; burst a flood In thunder down the echoing colonnades And dim recesses of the storied shrines, Where dwelt the elder gods; big with high dooms And presages of Fate. Then, ere it fell, The clamour like a bickering thunder rolled Afield beyond the city gates, and woke The silent river loitering to the sea, Till the shy sea-mews wailed. Last on the hills Untrodden, dim, which hung 'tween plain and sky, Mounting it smote, and on her eyrie roused The watchful, nesting eagle, till she raised Her half-closed eyelids; the light-footed fox Pricked a keen ear; all birds and beasts of prey, Seeking their meat in silence in the night, Paused from the quest a moment at the shock Of that strange formless roar. Anon it died, Swallowed in silence; and the loneliness Of that still listening world grew terrible, As is the ghostly rush of worlds which wheel For ever through the ages dumb and dead; Yet no voice came. But what had been, had been. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FINE DAY by KATHERINE MANSFIELD A LITTLE BOY'S DREAM by KATHERINE MANSFIELD SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALEXANDER THROCKMORTON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CAMPUS SONNET: BEFORE AN EXAMINATION by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET CONTRA MORTEM: THE NOTHING II by HAYDEN CARRUTH |