Defenders hardly know what they are seeing;
It seems a stunted tower, a shambling silhouette;
Vale and range obscure the improbable threat —
A castle ambulant, like some preposterous being.
Patiently it stalks them, lumbering and sly,
Until the moment its dormant intelligence whirs —
Slowly, slowly, the ponderous pendulum stirs
And swings its mailed fist into the sky.
There is no surge, no fray, no weltering seizure;
The silent weight describes a delicate arc
Through the cerulean moving towards its mark:
Brute force unleashed with bludgeoning leisure.