Like a tall forest were their spears,
1
Their banners like a silken sea,
When the great host in splendour passed
Across the crimson sinking sun.
And then the bray of brazen horns
5
Arose above their clanking march,
As the long waving column filed
Into the odorous purple dusk.
O lover, in this radiant world
9
Whence is the race of mortal men,
So frail, so mighty, and so fond,
That fleets into the vast unknown?