Bhishma still will do his duty, and his end it is not far,
Then may other chieftains follow,—fatal is this Kuru war!”
Dawned a day of mighty slaughter and of dread and deathful war,
Ancient Bhishma, in his anger drove once more his sounding car!
Morn to noon and noon to evening none could face the victor's wrath,
Broke and shattered, faint and frightened, Pandavs fled before his path!
Still amidst the dead and dying moved his proud resistless car,
Till the gathering night and darkness closed the horrors of the war!
X
Fall of Bhishma
Good Yudhishthir gazed with sorrow on the dark and ghastly plain,
Shed his tears on chiefs and warriors by the matchless Bhishma slain!
“Vain this unavailing battle, vain this woeful loss of life,
'Gainst the death-compelling Bhishma hopeless in this arduous strife!
As a lordly tusker tramples on a marsh of feeble reeds,
As a forest conflagration on the parchéd woodland feeds,
Bhishma rides upon my warriors in his mighty battle-car,
God nor mortal chief can face him in the gory field of war!