Arms And The Man. - Prologue.

Full-burnished through the long-revolving years     The ploughshare of a Century to-day     Runs peaceful furrows where a crop of Spears     Once stood in War's array.     And we, like those who on the Trojan plain     See hoary secrets wrenched from upturned sods; -     Who, in their fancy, hear resound again     The battle-cry of gods; -     We now, - this splendid scene before us spread     Where Freedom's full hexameter began -     Restore our Epic, which the Nations read     As far its thunders ran.     Here visions throng on People and on Bard,     Ranks all a-glitter in battalions massed     And closed around as like a plumd guard,     They lead us down the Past.     I see great Shapes in vague confusion march     Like giant shadows, moving vast and slow,     Beneath some torch-lit temple's mighty arch     Where long processions go.     I see these Shapes before me, all unfold,     But ne'er can fix them on the lofty wall,     Nor tell them, save as she of Endor told     What she beheld to Saul.