XXI.

But I was waken’d as the dreamers waken,

Whom the shrill trumpet and the shriek of dread

Rouse up at midnight, when their walls are taken,

And they must battle till their blood is shed

On their own threshold floor. A path for light

Through my torn breast was shatter’d by the might

Of the swift thunder-stroke; and freedom’s tread

Came in through ruins, late, yet not in vain,

Making the blighted place all green with life again.