THE RETURN
Reading edition
I heard the rumbling guns. I saw the smoke, The unintelligible shock of hosts that still, Far off, unseeing, strove and strove again; And Beauty flying naked down the hill
From morn to eve: and the stern night cried Peace! And shut the strife in darkness: all was still, Then slowly crept a triumph on the dark— And I heard Beauty singing up the hill.
John Freeman