And shrieks and shouts, and loud artillery,
That shook the slipp'ry earth, all drunk with gore—
I've seen it, swoll'n with subtle poison, black
And staring with concentrate agony—
When ev'ry vein hath started from its bed,
And wreath'd like knotted snakes, around the brows
That, frantic, dash'd themselves in tortures down
Upon the earth. I've seen life float away
On the faint sound of a far tolling bell—
Leaving its late warm tenement as fair,