Hougoumont: The First—Last Meeting
There, as we stand, a little further on,
Where Hougoumont had rolled the battle back—
Not yet the glory of their eagles gone—
The Old Guard thundered to their last attack,
And first defeat, and final overthrow,
And field of doom, and close of long career:—
These walls remember, and these ruins know,
What sentence from on High was spoken here.
Sweetly the smiles of musing sunset fall
On homes of peace and toil’s secure rewards,
Where battlemented fragments of a wall
Still mark the dreadful meeting of the Guards,
But once they met: and broken was his dream
Who thought he saw upon the waves of war
Reflections of an eldritch planet’s beam—
Mystical flashes from a fated star.
But once met they who then each host arrayed—
Rivals reserved for conflict from their birth—
But once they met—and shivered was the blade
Which long had waved its terrors o’er the earth.
Where whole battalions found a sudden grave,
And sank together to their bloody rest,
Peace broods full-breathing, yellow corn-fields wave,
And silent shadows creep from out the west.
And other shades, more awful, hover round,
And, haunting, visit the long summer here:
Be that peace theirs they died for on this ground—
They fought and conquered at this time of year.
Notes
The following text originally accompanied the poem:
“At a quarter to eleven (June 17) the French second corps advanced in close columns against Hougoumont, and the battle commenced. The efforts were repeated to carry this important port, only to be bloodily repulsed, and the resistance of the Guards was heroic. At last, despairing of success, the French artillery opened with shells upon the house—the old tower of Hougoumont was quickly in a blaze—the fire reached the chapel, and many of the wounded, both assailants and defenders, there perished miserably. Though the flames raged above, shells burst around, and shot ploughed through the shattered walls and windows, the Guards nobly held the place, and Hougoumont remained untaken.” — Maxwell.