Page:Poems Sigourney, 1834.pdf/226

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, and on old Zama's arid plain Two chieftains stood. At distance ranged their hosts, While they with flashing eye, and gesture strong, Held their high parley. One was sternly marked With care and hardship. Still his warrior soul Frowned in unbroken might, as when he sealed, In ardent boyhood, the eternal vow Of enmity to Rome. The other seemed Of younger years, and on his noble brow Beauty with magnanimity sat throned; And yet, methought, his darkening eye-ball said "Delendo est Carthago." Brief they spake, And parted as proud souls in anger part, While the wild shriek of trumpets, and the rush Of cohorts rent the air. I turned away. The pomp of battle, and the din of arms May round a period well, but to behold The mortal struggle, and the riven shield— To mark how Nature's holiest, tenderest ties Are sundered—to recount the childless homes, And sireless babes, and widows' early graves, Made by one victor-shout, bids the blood creep Cold through its channels. Once again I looked When the pure moon unveiled a silent scene, Silent, save when from 'neath some weltering pile