Classic Poem

So spake the Voice; and, as with a single life
Instinct, the whole mass, fierce, irretainable,
Down on that unsuspecting host swept
Down, with the fury of winds that all night
Up-brimming, sapping slowly the dyke, at dawn
Full through the breach, o'er homestead, and harvest, and
Herd roll a deluge; while the milkmaid
Trips i'the dew, and remissly guiding
Morn's first uneven furrow, the farmer's boy
Dreams out his dream: — so over the multitude
Safe-tented, uncontrolled and uncon-
trollably sped the Avenger's fury.