With trampling horses and refulgent cars—

Soon to be swallowed by the briny surge;

Or cast, for lingering death, on unknown strands;

Or caught amid a whirl[423] of desert sands—

An Army now, and now a living hill

That a brief while heaves with convulsive throes—

Then all is still;[424][EO]

Or, to forget their madness and their woes,

Wrapt in a winding-sheet of spotless snows!

V