I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:
Arrogant, in black armour, behind them stand,
Disdaining the reins, with fluttering whips, the charioteers.
They cry unto the night their battle-name:
I moan in sleep when I hear afar their whirling laughter.
They cleave the gloom of dreams, a blinding flame,
Clanging, clanging upon the heart as upon an anvil.
They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair:
They come out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom thus to despair?
My love, my love, my love, why have you left me alone?
_J. C. Squire_
Jack Collings Squire was born April 2, 1884, at Plymouth, of Devonian
ancestry. He was educated at Blundell's and Cambridge University, and
became known first as a remarkably adroit parodist. His _Imaginary
Speeches_ (1912) and _Tricks of the Trade_ (1917) are amusing parodies
and, what is more, excellent criticism. He edited _The New Statesman_
for a while and founded _The London Mercury_ (a monthly of which he is
editor) in November, 1919. Under the pseudonym "Solomon Eagle" he
wrote a page of literary criticism every week for six years, many of
these papers being collected in his volume, _Books in General_ (1919).
His original poetry is intellectual but simple, sometimes metaphysical
and always interesting technically in its fluent and variable rhythms.
A collection of his best verse up to 1919 was published under the
title, _Poems: First Series_.