Explore "The Conflict of Convictions. (1860-1.)" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
On starry heights / A bugle wails the long recall; / Derision stirs the deep abyss, / Heaven's ominous silence over all. / Return, return, O eager Hope, / And face man's latter fall. / Events, they make the dreamers quail; / Satan's old age is strong and hale, / A disciplined captain, gray in skill, / And Raphael a white enthusiast still; / Dashed aims, at which Christ's martyrs pale, / Shall Mammon's slaves fulfill?
(_Dismantle the fort, / Cut down the fleet -- / Battle no more shall be! / While the fields for fight in eons to come / Congeal beneath the sea._)