“Great Nature is an army gay”

Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909)

GREAT Nature is an army gay,

Resistless marching on its way;

I hear the bugles clear and sweet,

I hear the tread of million feet.

Across the plain I see it pour;

It tramples down the waving grass;

Within the echoing mountain-pass

I hear a thousand cannon roar.

It swarms within my garden gate;

My deepest well it drinketh dry.

It doth not rest; it doth not wait;

By night and day it sweepeth by;

Ceaseless it marches by my door;

It heeds me not, though I implore.

I know not whence it comes, nor where

It goes. For me it doth not care—

Whether I starve, or eat, or sleep,

Or live, or die, or sing, or weep.

And now the banners are all bright,

Now torn and blackened by the fight.

Sometimes its laughter shakes the sky,

Sometimes the groans of those who die.

Still through the night and through the livelong day

The infinite army marches on its remorseless way.