Andromeda, and Other Poems/A March
A MARCH.
DREARY East winds howling o'er us; Clay-lands knee-deep spread before us;Mire and ice and snow and sleet;Aching backs and frozen feet;Knees which reel as marches quicken,Ranks which thin as corpses thicken;While with carrion birds we eat,Calling puddle-water sweet,As we pledge the health of our general, who fares as rough as we:What can daunt us, what can turn us, led to death by such as he?