Classic Poem

II. 1.

The bloody banner streaming in the air
Seen on yon sky-mix'd mountain's brow,
The mingling multitudes, the madding car
Pouring impetuous on the plain below,
War's dreadful Lord proclaim.
Bursts out by frequent fits th' expansive flame,
Whirl'd in tempestuous eddies flies
The surging smoke o'er all the darken'd skies.
The chearful face of heaven no more is seen,
Fades the Morn's vivid blush to deadly pale,
The bat flits transient o'er the dusky green,
Night's shrieking birds along the sullen twilight sail.

II. 2.

Involv'd in fire-streak'd gloom the car comes on,
The mangled steeds grim Terror guides.
His forehead writh'd to a relentless frown,
Aloft the angry Power of battles rides:
Grafp'd in his mighty hand
A mace tremendous desolates the land;
Thunders the turret down the steep,
The mountain shrinks before its wasteful sweep:
Chill horror the dissolving limbs invades
Smit by the blasting lightning of his eyes,
A bloated paleness Beauty's bloom o'erspreads,
Fades every flowery field, and every verdure dies.

II. 3.

How startled Phrenzy stares,
Bristling her ragged hairs!
Revenge the gory fragment gnaws;
See, with her griping vulture-claws
Imprinted deep, she rends the opening wound!
Hatred her torch blue-streaming tosses round;
The shrieks of agony, and clang of arms
Re-echo to the fierce alarms
Her trump terrific blows.
Disparting from behind the clouds disclose
Of kingly gesture a gigantic form,
That with his scourge sublime directs the whirling storm.