LOOK-OUT MOUNTAIN (The Night Fight)

by: Herman Melville (1819-1891)

      HO inhabiteth the Mountain
      That it shines in lurid light,
      And is rolled about with thunders,
      And terrors, and a blight,
      Like Kaf the peak of Eblis--
      Kaf, the evil height?
      Who has gone up with a shouting
      And a trumpet in the night?
       
      There is battle in the Mountain--
      Might assaulteth Might;
      'Tis the fastness of the Anarch,
      Torrent-torn, an ancient height;
      The crags resound the clangor
      Of the war of Wrong and Right;
      And the armies in the valley
      Watch and pray for dawning light.
       
      Joy, joy, the day is breaking,
      And the cloud is rolled from sight;
      There is triumph in the Morning
      For the Anarch's plunging flight;
      God has glorified the Mountain
      Where a banner burneth bright,
      And the armies of the valley
      They are fortified in right.

"Look-out Mountain" was originally published in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War. Herman Melville. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1866.

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