Victory! Shattered supports reeled on the right, and rolled backward. Islanded, closed in the copse, lost, without hope, the Virginian Doggedly loaded once more, and the Tennessean beside him; Thus had they chosen to die, each dealing death in his dying. Sullen, some bowed them to fate, waved the white sign of surrender, Droopingly trailed to the rear with the bayonet-glitter to guard them; Brokenly over the plain receded the sorrowful remnant, Choosing retreat through fire. Even so, dragged back to the ocean, So have you seen on the shore, reluctant, and leaving behind it Swathes of the dark-red weed, and the beaten foam, and the leaping Gasping silver life of the deep, and the tragical driftwood, Some great wave withdrawn, at the turn of the tide, from the floodmark. Sad it seethes back to the sea. That was the turn of the war-tide, Ebb of the hope of the South, end of the Battle of Battles! VIII Noon of the night was come; and over the field sacrificial, Over the trampled corn, and the broken trees, and the horror,-- Horror of soulless pain of the beasts that perish unknowing, Horror of human ruin, the shattered sheaths of the spirit, Horror men pray to forget, and the tongue refuses to tell it,-- Now was the taintless light of the large moon shed out of heaven, Glory unchanged as the Face of the Father of Lights, to whom upward Gropes the groaning world.