They won the greater battle, when each soul Lay naked to the needless wreck of Mars; Yet, splendid in perfection, faced the goal Beyond the sweeping army of the stars. Necessity foretold that they must die Mangled and helpless, crippled, maimed and blind, And cursed with all the sacrilege of war-- To force a nation to retract a lie, To prove the unchartered honour of Mankind, To show how strong the silent passions are. III The daylight broke and brought the awaited cheer, And suddenly the land is live with men. In steady waves the infantry surge near; The fire, a sweeping curtain, lifts again. A battle-plane with humming engines swerves, Gleams like a whirring dragon-fly, and dips, Plunging cloud-shadowed in a breathless fall To climb undaunted in far-reaching curves. And, swaying in the clouds like anchored ships, Swing grim balloons with eyes that fathom all. But as the broad-winged battle-planes outsoared The shell-rocked skies, blue fields of cotton flowers, When bombs like bolts of thunder leapt and roared, And mighty moments faded into hours, The curtain fire redoubled yet again: The grey defence reversed their swift defeat And rallied strongly; whilst the attacking waves, Snared in a trench and severed from the main, Were driven fighting in a forced retreat Across the land that gaped with shell-turned graves. IV The troubled day sped on in weariness Till Night drugged Carnage in a drunken swoon. Jet-black, with spangling stars athwart her dress And pale in the shafted amber of the moon, She moved triumphant as a young-eyed queen In silent dignity: her shadowed face Scarce veiled by gossamer clouds, that scurrying ran Breathless in speed the high star-lanes between. She passed unheeding ’neath the dome of space, And scorned the petty tragedy of Man. And one looked upward, and in wonder saw The vast star-soldiered army of the sky. Unheard, the needless blasphemy of War Shrank at that primal splendour sweeping by. The moon’s gold-shadowed craters bathed the ground-- (Pale queen, she hunted in her pathless rise Lithe blackened raiders that bomb-laden creep) But now the earth-walled comfort wrapped him round, And soon in lulled forgetfulness he lies Where soldiers clasping arms like children sleep. Sleep held him as a mother holds her child: Sleep the soft calm that levels hopes and fears, Now stilled his brain and scarfed his eyelids wild, And sped the transient misery of tears, Until the dawn’s sure prophets cleft the night With opal shafts, and streamers tinged with flame, Swift merging riot of the turbaned East. Through rustling gesture loomed the advancing light; Through fitful eddying winds, grey vanguards came Rising in billowy mountains silver-fleeced.