With insolent colors that o’erdusked the skies,

And trailed from beach to beach:

Massed orange and mould-green; vermilion barred

On bronze and mottled silver; saffron dyes,

And purples migratory,

Fanned each in each,

As the long column broke, athirst for glory.

Sudden, the thunder!

Upon the roofed verandas how it rolled,

Twice, thrice: a thud and flame of doom that told