Horatius At The Bridge

Dear Readers, you do understand we had to memorize this, as schoolboys? here's an excerpt from Macauly's epic Horatius:

 

And nearer fast and nearer

    Doth the red whirlwind come;

And louder still and still more loud,

From underneath that rolling cloud,

Is heard the trumpet’s war-note proud,

    The trampling, and the hum.

And plainly and more plainly

    Now through the gloom appears,

Far to left and far to right,

In broken gleams of dark-blue light,

The long array of helmets bright,

    The long array of spears.

XXII

And plainly and more plainly,

    Above that glimmering line,

Now might ye see the banners

    Of twelve fair cities shine;

But the banner of proud Clusium

    Was highest of them all,

The terror of the Umbrian,

    The terror of the Gaul.

XXIII

And plainly and more plainly

    Now might the burghers know,

By port and vest, by horse and crest,

    Each warlike Lucumo.

There Cilnius of Arretium

    On his fleet roan was seen;

And Astur of the four-fold shield,

Girt with the brand none else may wield,

Tolumnius with the belt of gold,

And dark Verbenna from the hold

    By reedy Thrasymene.

XXIV

Fast by the royal standard,

    O’erlooking all the war,

Lars Porsena of Clusium

    Sat in his ivory car.

By the right wheel rode Mamilius,

    Prince of the Latian name;

And by the left false Sextus,

    That wrought the deed of shame.

And nearer fast and nearer doth the red whirlwind come. Stand back in awe.

Your Old Pal,

LSP