No More Learning

13.
Within a cave upon the hill were found
A bundle of rude pikes, the instrument
Of those who war but on their native ground _2445
For natural rights: a shout of joyance sent
Even from our hearts the wide air pierced and rent,
As those few arms the bravest and the best
Seized, and each sixth, thus armed, did now present
A line which covered and sustained the rest, _2450
A confident phalanx, which the foes on every side invest.

14.
That onset turned the foes to flight almost;
But soon they saw their present strength, and knew
That coming night would to our resolute host
Bring victory; so dismounting, close they drew _2455
Their glittering files, and then the combat grew
Unequal but most horrible;--and ever
Our myriads, whom the swift bolt overthrew,
Or the red sword, failed like a mountain river
Which rushes forth in foam to sink in sands for ever. _2460

15.
Sorrow and shame, to see with their own kind
Our human brethren mix, like beasts of blood,
To mutual ruin armed by one behind
Who sits and scoffs! --That friend so mild and good,
Who like its shadow near my youth had stood, _2465
Was stabbed! --my old preserver's hoary hair
With the flesh clinging to its roots, was strewed
Under my feet! --I lost all sense or care,
And like the rest I grew desperate and unaware.

16.
The battle became ghastlier--in the midst _2470
I paused, and saw, how ugly and how fell
O Hate! thou art, even when thy life thou shedd'st
For love. The ground in many a little dell
Was broken, up and down whose steeps befell
Alternate victory and defeat, and there _2475
The combatants with rage most horrible
Strove, and their eyes started with cracking stare,
And impotent their tongues they lolled into the air,

17.
Flaccid and foamy, like a mad dog's hanging;
Want, and Moon-madness, and the pest's swift Bane _2480
When its shafts smite--while yet its bow is twanging--
Have each their mark and sign--some ghastly stain;
And this was thine, O War! of hate and pain
Thou loathed slave!
I saw all shapes of death
And ministered to many, o'er the plain _2485
While carnage in the sunbeam's warmth did seethe,
Till twilight o'er the east wove her serenest wreath.

18.
The few who yet survived, resolute and firm
Around me fought. At the decline of day
Winding above the mountain's snowy term _2490
New banners shone; they quivered in the ray
Of the sun's unseen orb--ere night the array
Of fresh troops hemmed us in--of those brave bands
I soon survived alone--and now I lay
Vanquished and faint, the grasp of bloody hands _2495
I felt, and saw on high the glare of falling brands,

19.
When on my foes a sudden terror came,
And they fled, scattering--lo! with reinless speed
A black Tartarian horse of giant frame
Comes trampling over the dead, the living bleed _2500
Beneath the hoofs of that tremendous steed,
On which, like to an Angel, robed in white,
Sate one waving a sword;--the hosts recede
And fly, as through their ranks with awful might,
Sweeps in the shadow of eve that Phantom swift and bright; _2505

20.
And its path made a solitude. --I rose
And marked its coming: it relaxed its course
As it approached me, and the wind that flows
Through night, bore accents to mine ear whose force
Might create smiles in death--the Tartar horse _2510
Paused, and I saw the shape its might which swayed,
And heard her musical pants, like the sweet source
Of waters in the desert, as she said,
'Mount with me, Laon, now'--I rapidly obeyed.

21.
Then: 'Away! away! ' she cried, and stretched her sword _2515
As 'twere a scourge over the courser's head,
And lightly shook the reins. --We spake no word,
But like the vapour of the tempest fled
Over the plain; her dark hair was dispread
Like the pine's locks upon the lingering blast; _2520
Over mine eyes its shadowy strings it spread
Fitfully, and the hills and streams fled fast,
As o'er their glimmering forms the steed's broad shadow passed.

22.
And his hoofs ground the rocks to fire and dust,
His strong sides made the torrents rise in spray, _2525
And turbulence, as of a whirlwind's gust
Surrounded us;--and still away! away!