Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles

One of the more interesting figures in early Russian history is Prince Sviatoslav (r. 964-972 CE). According to George Vernadsky, Sviatoslav was tough as nails, a tireless military campaigner. He also scorned stealth when attacking his enemy, preferring instead to send couriers ahead of his troops bearing the message, "I come against you" (Vernadsky, A History of Russia, New York: Bantam (1961), p. 35).

In the death-bed edition of Leaves, Whitman's "Inscriptions" include these lines:

I too haughty Shade also sing war, and a longer and greater one/than any,/Waged in my book with varying fortune, with flight, advance/and retreat, victory deferr'd and wavering,/(Yet methinks certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) the/field the world,/For life and death, for the Body and for the eternal Soul,/Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles,/I above all promote brave soldiers.

Lying admirals, I come against you.
Obscene generals, fat, gorged on the blood
of innocents, I come against you, too.
Murderers, torturers, thieves in the name
of liberty: I come against you.
Christo-fascists, I come against you.
Craven Newspeak politicians, index
fingers in the wind: I come against you.
Republican, Democrat, right and left,
for the Body and for the eternal Soul,
Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles...