Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/73

Falls flat and heavy on the accustomed ear;
When Eunuchs sing, and Fools buffoon'ry make,375
And Dancers writhe their harlot limbs in vain:
Then War and all its dread vicissitudes
Pleasingly agitate their stagnant hearts,
Its hopes, its fears, its victories, its defeats,
Insipid Royalty's keen Condiment.380
Therefore, uninjur'd and unprofited
(Victims at once and executioners)
The congregated Husbandmen lay waste
The Vineyard and the Harvest: as along
The Bothnic Coast or southward of the Line385
Though hush'd the Winds, and cloudless the high Noon,
Yet if Leviathan, weary of ease,
In sports unwieldy toss his island bulk,
Ocean behind him billows, and, before,
A storm of Waves breaks foamy on the strand.390
And hence for times and seasons bloody and dark
Short Peace shall skin the wounds of causeless War,
And War, his strained sinews knit anew,

"Still