Page:Poems and ballads, third series (IA poemsballadsthir00swin).pdf/39

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THE ARMADA.
25

ii.

At her feet were the heads of her foes bowed down, and

the strengths of the storm of them stayed,
And the hearts that were touched not with mercy with
terror were touched and amazed and affrayed:
Yea, hearts that had never been molten with pity were
molten with fear as with flame,
And the priests of the Godhead whose temple is hell,
and his heart is of iron and fire,
And the swordsmen that served and the seamen that
sped them, whom peril could tame not or tire,
Were as foam on the winds of the waters of England
which tempest can tire not or tame.

iii.

They were girded about with thunder, and lightning came

forth of the rage of their strength,
And the measure that measures the wings of the storm
was the breadth of their force and the length: