The Battles.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 251, 31 March 1888, Page 5

The Battles.

Another niovii— rro ro<-e Sol's earliest, beams Tin: busty bugle w;ik'd the .slumb'rmg world Thai lay 'in jirmour. Now, farewell, wud dieams ; r l lie* fill mo shall bo known, and doubts be Imrl'd In one \;i~il ir avc ere setting of yon 3iin. The ha-»ty march, the soldiers' thund'ring cheer. 'I he btibcl din tlic hKimK h ooin of gun J'lochum the aush of nations drawwth near! Hark' 1,1 s,l demon's roar! The cannon's flash ili sitrn.il Ihshcs o\ cr hil' and dale. \ million hearts '•land still, no foais may lash Though cj es be dun and nlnnchad cheeks inor pale, K.irh man amongst the mil'ions .irmour'd there Knows well the purport, of 1 hat awful roir. One breathes » curse, and one a simple prayer, And some iccount their fo lies o\ v and o'er. Tin muni of horse, (lie warrior's sfendy tread, 'I in 1 rlani> of nwords, the deadly rifle's ring ; The leader's s'nont, and waving overhead The bai tie's en-ign — like the bird on wing 'J'luit te in of sudden swoop to crush his nrey— The sun-risen fleams like now-sued blood, And rat h br.txe lienrt well knows, alas ! the day Shall set in sorrow with its crimson flood. They dmrgr, the> Hot 1 , they rally, then retire; The cannon laj^ the foremost warnois low ; Kaeh sw co 111 1 of shel is as a blast of hre, And a-< a sevt c. mow a thousands at a blow! The elrt^h of steel r ngs ruefully along, The l die hisses its death-rattle ther ; Wild slim k tho dying ones, and warn trim SOUK Joim chot us to the wail of man's despair. The cannon roar, torpedoes, wheel'd in flame, Jium ui> affrighted hosts; like statue'- fall Unwounded men, in madness and in slmine. Natuie forgets to move as Death's dread pall O er-hadeh humani v, and \A(e stands still. All sjieechless, at the devilry of mi^ht. W ho?c cruel lust and whose ingenious bk'll Korged engines He 1 had ever hid from siyht! And as the broken columns paused in dread A liirlit" o'cr-eanopied the darken'd sky, Lm ting tin 1 valleys of the butchered dead And hushing shrieks that welled in agoni, From wounded braves. There was a bitter wail Of mazement, horror, and of wild atfncrht Thai made the brute and warrior spirit quail. And day. corn ulsa c, ahuddered into night ! The foe. hard presort, (o self, without remorse, B lit up a funeral p>ie, and laid a train. Beneath liutje mounds, of d're electric foree — A second Moscow palled tho world again ! And. with a crash of earthquakes, all was o"cr, Have cyclone-* of torn limbs upon the p am. And tierce clouds drowned in ghastlj tears of Rore. Aud miles of burnt and mutilated lain ! And nought is heard b >t shrieks of brutal pain. The piteous neigh of disembowel d brute. Andciy for water, as men ci% in \mn, Ere \ et their agony for aye is mute ; Tin nis^ht adil« moanings with the frosted bi eczc, The pale, bad moon now hides in pi'eous shame. And bloody m era mincrle with the seas To shudder ever at, man's monslroiib name These arc thy T\orks. frail pigmy of a day ' Thou rearest mountains, built ou >atur<_"> throne — Calhedials tower m beauteous arraj : And tliou nit master lin sc .ire thine alone— And thou desiioM «t. Lo ' before thee fall The iro\»niii!C i\isile and the smiling co(. For I on m i loid mn! n.<i^t( r o\ cr n 1 , And then thuu dieot, liken worm toiot.