Verses (Baughan)/The Brink of Battle
THE BRINK OF BATTLE
Yon mute grandeur of the midnight Heaven
Hangs like some dread destiny o’erhead.
Earth is dumb with awe, the air is stricken
Voiceless; light ts over, day is dead.
Only do my footsteps break the silence,
Trampling peace beneath their restless tread;
Only do my thoughts go whirling, whirling,
’Mid the stillness in tempestuous rush,
Like a thousand emulous warriors surging
Heavily against this world-wide hush—
Heavily! O God! have they not power
Twenty human hearts like mine to crush?
What is it that arms them? Is it sorrow
Or remorse has made their shafts so keen?
Have their arrows drunk of foil’d ambition’s
Bitter poison? Or hath mad doubt been
Forger of their weapons? Neither; only
This same quiet, plain accustom’d scene.
Just these four red walls, this closed quadrangle!
Nothing lovely in it, saving peace,
Save security, and unstorm’d shelter.
O harsh world, O pain that cannot cease,
Even ere your fetters fasten round me,
Cries my captive heart: “Release! Release!”
Cries, and sickens with a desperate longing,
Even now, in thought of what will be,
For this vision of pure calm untroubled.
Eyes of mine! look, drink it in, O see
Everything, miss nothing! This may solace
(Who knows?) days and nights of misery.
—Moonlight suddenly! And behold! above me
Shine the four stone Faces, white and stern,
From the dark wall: Molière, and Dante,
Æschylus and Shakespeare—souls that yearn
Still, perhaps, for love and light and knowledge,
Or, perhaps—who knows what they discern?
They lived once on earth, these men, with foreheads
Stamp’d by some high quest’s tremendous toil,
And wide eyes, intent to pierce the darkness
With an earnestness no fear could foil.
Ay, and, living, to what pain, what terror,
Paid their hearts the tribute of recoil?
Yet how fathomless, O God! the anguish
Needed to produce Thee souls so grand!
They accepted all; and from my pittance
Dare I shrink? No, never! from Thy hand,
See! I snatch my orders to Life’s battle,
Seize my chance to suffer and to stand!