<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Prodigy <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/>1915</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WHEN Kings reeled to their fall, or Pestilence</p><p class="line">poured</p><p class="line">Her chalice, or wan Famine claimed her slain,</p><p class="line">Dread comets ploughed of old the ethereal</p><p class="line">plain,</p><p class="line">The Hirsute Star loosing his locks abhorred.</p><p class="line">Fierce shapes he took, a bristled monster,</p><p class="line">gored</p><p class="line">With porcine tusk the cold-bosomed Inane;</p><p class="line">Flowed on the neck of Night, a charger's mane,</p><p class="line">Or brandished in the zenith a hungry sword.</p><p class="line">Now, once again, the buccaneer of Heaven,</p><p class="line">Yonder he cruises by its northern coasts,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And there shall trail his wake of bodeful foam,</p><p class="line">Till, from that region hunted wide, and</p><p class="line">driven</p><p class="line">Before its fleets and all their armoured hosts,</p><p class="line">In deeps unknown the starry Ishmael roam.</p></div></body></html> · Great War