Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/99

Rh The summit-cannon plunge their flame

Sheer down the primal wall,

But up and up each linking troop

In stretching festoons crawl—

Nor fire a shot. Such men appall

The foe, though brave. He, from the brink,

Looks far along the breadth of slope,

And sees two miles of dark dots creep,

And knows they mean the cope.

He sees them creep. Yet here and there

Half hid 'mid leafless groves they go;

As men who ply through traceries high

Of turreted marbles show—

So dwindle these to eyes below.

But fronting shot and flanking shell

Sliver and rive the inwoven ways;

High tops of oaks and high hearts fall,

But never the climbing stays.

From right to left, from left to right

They roll the rallying cheer—

Vie with each other, brother with brother,

Who shall the first appear—

What color-bearer with colors clear

In sharp relief, like sky-drawn Grant,