More Songs by the Fighting Men
Then, as I laid my head upon the ground,
And waited there for dark night's close embrace,
I heard, far off, a murmuring, rumbling sound,
As if the earth groaned at her own disgrace;
It trembled on the breeze, swelled, and then died;
Again the branches rustled, and God sighed.
Sunset
LIKE a vast forest on some distant plain,
Out in the west, dark, rounded clouds lay low
Upon the sea: o'er them, the sun's broad train—
The glories of the golden afterglow.
Gold, and then crimson: changing, through degrees
Of red and green, to fields of turquoise blue:
Then darker blue, that challenges the seas
To deeper darkness, as the storm-clouds do.
Then, when the stars gleamed faintly, blushing red
At their own eagerness: and as this feast
Of beauty seemed complete, and day was dead,
I turned my face, and looked toward the east.
There I saw that which made me hold my breath;
I'd thought the sunset fair: now met my sight,
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