Explore "The March into Virginia, Ending in the First Manassas. (July, 1861.)" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Did all the lets and bars appear / To every just or larger end, / Whence should come the trust and cheer? / Youth must its ignorant impulse lend -- / Age finds place in the rear. / All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys, / The champions and enthusiasts of the state: / Turbid ardors and vain joys / Not barrenly abate -- / Stimulants to the power mature, / Preparatives of fate.
Who here forecasteth the event? / What heart but spurns at precedent / And warnings of the wise, / Contemned foreclosures of surprise?