My life has crept so long on a broken wing
Thro' cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear,
That I come to be grateful at last for a little

thing :
My mood is changed, for it fell at a time of year
When the face of night is fair on the dewy downs,
And the shining daffodil dies, and the Charioteer
And starry Gemini hang like glorious crowns
Over Orion's grave low down in the west,
That like a silent lightning under the stars
She seem’d to divide in a dream from a band of the

blest,

And spoke of a hope for the world in the coming

wars—

* And in that hope, dear soul, let trouble have rest, Knowing I tarry for thee, and pointed to Mars As he glow'd like a ruddy shield on the Lion's

breast.

2.

And it was but a dream, yet it yielded a dear

delight

To have look’d, tho’ but in a dream, upon eyes so

fair,

That had been in a weary world my one thing

bright; And it was but a dream, yet it lighten’d my despair When I thought that a war would arise in defence

of the right, That an iron tyranny now should bend or cease, The glory of manhood stand on his ancient height, Nor Britain's one sole God be the millionnaire :

No more shall commerce be all in all, and Peace
Pipe on her pastoral hillock a languid note,
And watch her harvest ripen, her herd increase,
Nor the cannon-bullet rust on a slothful shore,
And the cobweb woven across the cannon's

throat Shall shake its threaded tears in the wind no more.

And as months ran on and rumour of battle grew, 'It is time, it is time, O passionate heart,” said I (For I cleaved to a cause that I felt to be pure

and true), 'It is time, O passionate heart and morbid eye, That old hysterical mock-disease should die.' And I stood on a giant deck and mix'd my breath With a loyal people shouting a battle cry, Till I saw the dreary phantom arise and fly Far into the North, and battle, and seas of death.

Let it go or stay, so I wake to the higher aims
Of a land that has lost for a little her lust of gold,
And love of a peace that was full of wrongs and

shames, Horrible, hateful, monstrous, not to be told ; And hail once more to the banner of battle

unrolld! Tho' many a light shall darken, and many shall weep For those that are crush'd in the clash of jarring

claims, Yet God's just wrath shall be wreak’d on a giant

liar;

And many a darkness into the light shall leap,
And shine in the sudden making of splendid names,
And noble thought be freër under the sun,
And the heart of a people beat with one desire ;
For the peace, that I deem'd no peace, is over and

done,