Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War

On starry heightsA bugle wails the long recall;Derision stirs the deep abyss,Heaven's ominous silence over all.Return, return, O eager Hope,And face man's latter fall.Events, they make the dreamers quail;Satan's old age is strong and hale,A disciplined captain, gray in skill,And Raphael a white enthusiast still;Dashed aims, at which Christ's martyrs pale,Shall Mammon's slaves fulfill?(Dismantle the fort,Cut down the fleet-Battle no more shall be!While the fields for fight in aeons to comeCongeal beneath the sea.)The terrors of truth and dart of deathTo faith alike are vain;Though comets, gone a thousand years,Return again,Patient she stands-she can no more-And waits, nor heeds she waxes hoar.(At a stony gate,A statue of stone,Weed overgrown-Long 'twill wait!)But God his former mind retains,Confirms his old decree;The generations are inured to pains,And strong NecessitySurges, and heaps Time's strand with wrecks.The People spread like a weedy grass,The thing they will they bring to pass,And prosper to the apoplex.The rout it herds around the heart,7The ghost is yielded in the gloom;Kings wag their heads-Now save thyselfWho wouldst rebuild the world in bloom.(Tide-markAnd top of the ages' strike,Verge where they called the world to come,The last advance of life-Ha ha, the rust on the Iron Dome!)Nay, but revere the hid event;In the cloud a sword is girded on,I mark a twinkling in the tentOf Michael the warrior one.