BATTLE-RETROSPECT.
Those sultry nights we used to pass outdoors
And through the cherry orchards to the fields
That stretched down to the floor of the Champagne,
And there that steady thunder in the west
That nightly rolled and echoed without rest
Broke on our ears with new intensity.
As those who come out suddenly upon
The sea, whose murmur reached them in the woods,
Are stunned by the loud-crashing surf that runs
In surging thunder all along the coast,
So the great breakers of this sea of sound
Broke over us when we had reached the fields,
And through the starry silences was borne
That fluctuating roar, its rise and fall
And climaxes that filled the soul with dread.
We saw the febrile flashes, hour by hour,
Incessant, over many miles of front,
Succeeding each the other instantly
As though in some fantastical pursuit,
In ever madder race. They shot their light
To the last stars; the empyrean throbbed
With man's device,—or were they men, or gods?
We saw the soaring signals flare and float,
Likewise incessant, multitudinous,
As though some city of the Vulcans lay
Across the land with flaming forges bright,
And panting furnaces that scorched the night,
Hammering out the ribs of a new earth
Or some new instrument of destiny.
A perturbation deeper far than fear
Took hold on us,
Never did man behold or hear
A thing more ominous;
So regular, so fierce, fatality
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