Ne'er since then, and ne'er before, On England's fields with English hands Have met for death such myriad myriad bands, Such wolf-like fury, and such greed of gore:-- No natural kindly touch, no check of shame: And no such bestial rage Blots our long story's page; Such lewd remorseless swords, such selfishness of aim --Gracious Prince of Peace! Yet Thou May'st look and bless with lenient eyes When trodden races 'gainst their tyrant rise, And the bent back no more will deign to bow: Or when they crush some old anarchic feud, And found the throne anew On Law to Freedom true, Cleansing the land they love from guilt of blood by blood. Nor did Heaven unmoved behold When Hellas, for her birthright free Dappling with gore the dark Saronian sea, The Persian wave back, past Abydos, roll'd:-- But in this murderous match of chief 'gainst chief No chivalry had part, No impulse of the heart; Nor any sigh for Right triumphant breathes relief. --Midday comes: and no release, No carnage-pause to blow on blow! While through the choir the palm-wreathed children go, And gay hosannas hail the Prince of Peace:-- And evening falls, and from the Minster height They see the wan Ouse stream Blood-dark with slaughter gleam, And hear the demon-struggle shrieking through the night. Love, o'er palms in triumph strown Passing, through the crowd alone,-- Silent 'mid the exulting cry,-- At Jerusalem to die: Thou, foreknowing all, didst know How Thy blood in vain would flow! How our madness oft would prove Recreant to the law of love: Wrongs that men from men endure Doing Thee to death once more! 'On the 29th of March 1461 the two armies encountered one another at Towton Field, near Tadcaster. In the numbers engaged, as well as in the terrible obstinacy of the struggle, no such battle had been seen in England since the field of Senlac. The two armies together numbered nearly 120,000 men': (_Green_, B. IV: ch. vi). _Saronian sea_; Scene of the battle of Salamis, B.C. 480. _They see the wan Ouse stream_; Mr. R. Wilton, of Londesborough, has kindly pointed out to me that _Wharfe_, which from a brook received the bloodshed of Towton, does not discharge into _Ouse_ until about ten miles south of York. The _gleam_ is, therefore, visionary: (1889). GROCYN AT OXFORD _THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE_ 1491 As she who in some village-child unknown, With rustic grace and fantasy bedeck'd And in her simple loveliness alone, A sister finds;--and the long years' neglect Effaces with warm love and nursing care, And takes her heart to heart, And in her treasured treasures bids her freely share,