Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/187

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front to front the marching armies shine, Halt ere they meet, and form the lengthening line: The chiefs conspicuous seen and heard afar, Give the loud signal to the rushing war; Their dreadful trumpets deep-mouth'd hornets sound, The sounded charge remurmurs o'er the ground; E'en Jove proclaims a field of horror nigh, And rolls low thunder through the troubled sky.

First to the fight the large Hypsiboas flew, And brave Lychenor with a javelin slew. The luckless warrior fill'd with generous flame, Stood foremost glittering in the post of fame; When in his liver struck, the javelin hung; The mouse fell thundering, and the target rung; Prone to the ground he sinks his closing eye, And soil'd in dust his lovely tresses lie.

A spear at Pelion Troglodytes cast, The missive spear within the bosom past; Death's sable shades the fainting frog surround, And life's red tide runs ebbing from the wound.