Be still. The bleeding night is in suspense br Of watchful agony and coloured thought, br And every beating vein and trembling sense, br Long-tired with time, is pitched and overwrought. br And for the eye, br The darkness holds strange forms. br Soft movements in the leaves, and wicked glows br That wait and peer. The whole black landscape br swarms br With shapes of white and grey that no one knows; br And for the ear, a sound, a pause, a breath. br The hand has touched the slimy face of death. br The mind is raking at the ragged past. br ……A sound of rifles rattles from the south, br and startled orders move from mouth to mouth.