Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/85

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LEIPZIG

"'O,' the old folks said, 'ye Preachers stern!
O so-called Christian time!
When will men's swords to ploughshares turn?
When come the promised prime?' . . .

"—The clash of horse and man which that day began,
Closed not as evening wore;
And the morrow's armies, rear and van,
Still mustered more and more.

"From the City towers the Confederate Powers
Were eyed in glittering lines,
And up from the vast a murmuring passed
As from a wood of pines.

"'Tis well to cover a feeble skill
By numbers! scoffèd He;
'But give me a third of their strength, I'd fill
Half Hell with their soldiery!'

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