Columns of men
Lining the route
To the end of Time.

Sleeping, all sleeping,
All the way to 
The end of the line.

The cannon shot,
His soul, direct,
Shook dust off its shine.

The withering wound
Wound around, drown,
Their path to the divine.

Viscount Horatio Nelson, British officer of the Royal Navy, famed for his victory in the battle of Trafalgar, was born today in 1758.

Émile Zola, French novelist, playwright and journalist, died today in 1902.

W. H. Auden, English-American poet, died on this day in 1973.