Classic Poem

Hark! through the city, quiet, cool, and starred,
Longing for sleep and for repose in dreams,
Dull rattling hoofs in hundreds echo hard:
The deep reverberant groundswell upwards streams.

Heavily the long cavalcade clatters and prances
Through the dazzling glare of lamps, through shadows thickly scored,
The sound in a broken rhythm quivers and dances,
As the ponderous bulks in irregular trot move forward.

Man's mighty slaves, now for a time set free,
Pass from the city that they served so well,
Churning to choppy waves its sombre sea,
Beating harsh dissonances of farewell.
Their steel-shod hoofs gleam bright as they move on
To green-clad silent pastures in the sun.