Classic Poem

Fire falters yet in the fatiguèd eyes:
And now the slow blood stirs with sudden leap,
And angry thunder daunts the spies that peep
Exploring if the Lion lives or dies.
But cold upon the sand his fellow lies,
The far-flung shadow of whose dawnless sleep
The many-nationed world doth overcreep;
Not solely where Rhine's torrent seaward hies.
Day darkens, and uneasy Night must wake
'Neath her blue vault, new sown with baleful stars,
And chains of Slav and Gaul spontaneous shake;
As anciently at birth of Latin wars,
Eager their appetite for blood to slake,
Rome's weapons rattled in the fane of Mars.