Where ignorant armies clash by night

[wolfinthewood]

Matthew Arnold anticipates Twitter:

And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

from ‘Dover Beach’ (1851)

Comments

[shewhomust]

Good point!

[jsburbidge]

Then through the great town’s harsh, heart-wearying roar,
Let in thy voice a whisper often come,
To chase fatigue and fear:
Why faintest thou? I wander’d till I died.
Roam on! the light we sought is shining still.
Dost thou ask proof? Our Tree yet crowns the hill,
Our Scholar travels yet the loved hillside.

-Thyrsis (1861)