Classic Poem

When civil war awak'd his wrathful fire,
I saw the Britons' burnings stain the sky;
I saw the combat rage with ruthless ire,
Welt'ring in gore the dead and dying lye!

How devastation crimson'd on my eye,
When swoon'd the frighten'd maid; the matron fled
And wept her missing child with thrilling cry;
Old men on staves, and sick men from their bed
Crept, while the foe the conflagration sped!

So broods, in upper skies, that tempest dire,
Whence fiercer heat these elements shall warm;
What time, in robes of blood and locks of fire,
Th' exterminating angel's awful form
Blows the grave-rending blast, and guides the redd'ning storm.