O, summer-high that day the sun
His chariot drove o'er Marston wold:
A rippling sea of amber wheat
That floods the moorland vale with gold.
With harvest light the valley laughs,
The sheaves in mellow sunshine sleep;
--Too rathe the crop, too red the swathes
Ere night the scythe of Death shall reap!
Then thick and fast o'er all the moor
The crimson'd sabre-lightnings fly;
And thick and fast the death-bolts dash,
And thunder-peals to peals reply.
Where Evening arched her fiery dome
Went up the roar of mortal foes:--
Then o'er a deathly peace the moon
In silver silence sailing rose.
Sweet hour, when heaven is nearest home,
And children's kisses close the day!
O disaccord with nature's calm,
Unholy requiem of the fray!
White maiden Queen that sail'st above,
Thy dew-tears on the fallen fling,--
The blighted wreaths of civil strife,
The war that can no triumph bring!
--O pale with that deep pain of those
Who cannot save, yet must foresee,--
Surveying all the ills to flow
From that too-victor victory;
When 'gainst the unwisely guided King
The dark self-centred Captain stood,
And law and right and peace went down
In that red sea of brothers' blood;--
O long, long, long the years, fair Maid,
Before thy patient eye shall view
The shrine of England's law restored,
Her homes their native peace renew!
_That day_; The actual fight lay between 7 and 9 p.m.
_Too-victor victory_; At Naseby, says Hallam,--and the remark, (though
Charles was not personally present), is equally true of Marston
Moor--'Fairfax and Cromwell triumphed, not only over the king and the
monarchy, but over the parliament and the nation.'
_Unwisely guided_; 'Never would it have been wiser, in Rupert,' remarks
Ranke, 'to avoid a decisive battle than at that moment. But he held that
the king's letter not only empowered, but instructed him to fight.'
_Red sea_; 'The slaughter was deadly, for Cromwell had forbidden quarter
being given': (Ranke, ix: 3).