Like a tall forest were their spears / Bliss Carman

LXIX 

Like a tall forest were their spears,
Their banners like a silken sea,
When the great host in splendour passed
Across the crimson sinking sun. 

And then the bray of brazen horns
Arose above their clanking march,
As the long waving column filed
Into the odorous purple dusk.

O lover, in this radiant world
Whence is the race of mortal men,
So frail, so mighty, and so fond,
That fleets into the vast unknown?

~~
Bliss Carman (1861-1929)
from Sappho: One hundred lyrics, 1904

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Bliss Carman biography