I.

Short breathing time the "Angry Star"
Gave Tangi,^* nor retreated far.
Soon as he saw his feint to draw
The veteran from his Fort had failed,
Again he marshalled all his band
Upon the flat beside the shore.

page 112 Then, with a new device, though planned
Before, with hearts and hopes new-fanned
And by the cunning priest beguiled
With omens sure and safe, once more
The stubborn stronghold they assailed.
With songs and yells and gestures wild
In swarms across the ditch they swept;
In swarms the broken barrier leapt;
Once more by casual shots annoyed
Around the platform swift deployed.
Again—scarce waiting their attack—
The fiery Chief, whom neither age
Nor odds nor toil made slow or slack,
Had sallied forth to force them back,
Or hand-to-hand at least engage
The first who scaled that fighting-stage.
So all the terrace circling round
The ramparts, as before, was crowned
With thronging men in deadly broil
O'erthrown—o'erthrowing; a dark coil
Convulsive, fluctuating, dense,
Of agonizing forms confused,
In every violent posture used
In mad attack or tough defence!
A mass of spears and clubs that crossed
And clashed, and limbs that twined and tossed,
As leathery links of seaweed lithe
At ebbing tide on rock-reefs writhe:
And all the forms and limbs exact
In statuesque proportions cast—
Dark symmetry of strength compact,
Where working muscles rose and fell
With shifting undulations, fast
As poppling wavelets when the breeze
The tide-rip grates in narrow seas!
Till all that ring of wrestlings rife,
Continuous knots of naked strife,
Had seemed, to looker-on at ease,
Some crowded Phigaleian^* frieze
page 113 Or Parthenaic^* miracle
Of Art awaked to sudden life—
Or worked in terra-cotta, say,
Brown Lapithae^† in deadly fray;
Large-limbed Theseian^‡ heroes old,
But darkly-dyed, of kindred race,
Whose naked forms of classic mould
In one wide-ranging death-embrace
Their naked, struggling foes enfold.