A Rhyme Of The War Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEFFGG HHIIJJKKLLMMNNOO PPQQBBRR SSCJTT UUVV WWXXYZA2A2B2B2AAC2C2 BBVVD2D2 E2E2F2F2JJG2G2 AALLF2F2H2H2OO JJQQI2I2AAQQQQQQQQ J2J2QQK2K2L2L2 QQJJ QJQJ M2HN2H QO2JO2 P2VM2V Q2Q Q JJM2J R2QM2Q QUJJQQ A S2S2T2T2JJ BBU2U2NNQQ QQQQV2V2 W2W2JJJJX2X2 AAY2Y2QQQQ XXZ2Z2QQQQW2W2 G2G2QQA3A3FF QQB3B3 DDQQQQP2P2 PPDD AAC3C3 M2M2JJOOQ2Q2 AAG2G2 JJQQIID3D3 QQJJ QQE3E3 JJF3F3G3G3 BBX2X2QQAAG3G3 H3H3 QQM2M2G3G3JJ NNQQJJ I3I3M2M2FFQQ D3D3BB QQJ3J3JJQQFF JJJJ FFOO QQJ3J3 J3J3QQ QQJ3J3K3K3 A J3J3FFQQJ3J3QQIIQQ VVQ2Q2 J3J3FF OOL3L3M3M3J3J3FF FF N3N3J3J3O3O3 J3J3QQJ P3P3 QQAAQQQQQQ G3G3FFQQQQVVJ3J3 J3J3JJQQ J3J3JJG2G2 OOJJQQFF QQQQ Q3Q3J3J3BBD3D3 QQJ3J3QQQQ FFQQJJFF V M3M3QQJJQQFF QQQQI2R3QQIIFF JJFFFFFFQQ Q2Q2H3H3XXQQBBFF J3J3QQFFJJ JJOO JFS3FQOT3O JQJ3QQOQO J3QQ2Q QOQ2O J3VJ3VQ2OJ3O J3J3JJ3QQ J3J3J3J J3J3QQ QQQQQQ J3 J3J3HH QQJ3J3J3J3J3J3 J3J3J3J3 QQOOQQAAXXQQJ3J3FFJJ I2R3 J3J3J3J3QQHHO3O3QQFF J3J3 J3J3QQJJ QQQQJ3J3QQJ3J3J3J3J3 J3 J3J3J3J3JJ JJFFQQJ3J3 A Q2Q2QQQQ AAFFJ3J3U3U3G2G2QQL3 L3 J3JM3M3QQJ3J3QQQQQQK 3K3 G3G3FFFF QQS3S3HH J3J3JJ V3V3QQ FFJJU3U3 OHAAQQQQFFJJ JJHH QQHHJJ G3G3 FFJ Q G3G3 Y2Y2J3J3J3J3 JJJJ3HHFFQQ AAAAJ3J3AAJ3J3JJAAW3 W3 JJ JHJHFVFV AHAHAX3AX3 OHOHHFHF J3AJ3AAFAF HHHHAA V V3V3JJAAVV AAVVJ3J3 JJFF J3J3J3J3 AJ3AJ3 J3AJ3A HJ3HJ3 AJ3AJ3 Y3 Y3H J3AJ3A W3W3JJFF AAP3Z3J3J3AA FQAQ QA4J3A4 J3QJ3Q J3JQJ H3FJ3F FVQV JQFQ J3QHQ J3J3JJ3 QJ3JJ3 FQQQ J3J3J3J3 X3FFF VHJ3H HJ3QJ3 HJHJ B4VJV JHFH JFQF QJ3X3J3 V C4C4VVG3G3QQ Y3Y3FFH3H3 QQQQJ3J3QQQQ J3J3HHQQ VVJJD4D4FF H3H3J3J3QQ QQJJ FFFFVVJ3J3 QQJJJ3J3 QQAAJJFFJ3J3 J3J3J3J3QQQQ J3J3QQQQH3H3 QQQQFFHHVV J3 E4E4HHQQJJ Q2Q2U3U3 WWJ3J3QQ J3J3F4F4QQJ3J3 QQAA QQJ3J3G4G4JJ VVQQ H4H4QQJ3J3 Y2Y2HHJJQQ FFJ3 J3QQ I4I4S3S3 JJAAJ3J3J3 HH JJJ3JJ3J3VV QQVV D4D4VVAAHH QQJ3J3 J3J3QQ J3J3J4J4 J3J3FFQQ J3 FFFH QQQH K3K3K3H QQQH QQQH FFFH JJ3J3H QQQH QQQH JJVVJJQQHH J3J3J3J3HHFFJJJJ3QQ I2I2J3J3JJFFQQVVVVJ3 J3

I	A
	-
There is sorrow in Beechenbrook Cottage the day	B
Has been bright with the earliest glory of May	B
The blue of the sky is as tender a blue	C
As ever the sunshine came shimmering through	C
The songs of the birds and the hum of the bees	D
As they merrily dart in and out of the trees	D
The blooms of the orchard as sifting its snows	E
It mingles its odors with hawthorn and rose	E
The voice of the brook as it lapses unseen	F
The laughter of children at play on the green	F
Insist on a picture so cheerful so fair	G
Who ever would dream that a grief could be there	G
	-
The last yellow sunbeam slides down from the wall	H
The purple of evening is ready to fall	H
The gladness of daylight is gone and the gloom	I
Of something like sadness is over the room	I
Right bravely all day with a smile on her brow	J
Has Alice been true to her duty but now	J
Her tasks are all ended naught inside or out	K
For the thoughtfullest love to be busy about	K
The knapsack well furnished the canteen all bright	L
The soldier's grey dress and his gauntlets in sight	L
The blanket tight strapped and the haversack stored	M
And lying beside them the cap and the sword	M
No last little office no further commands	N
No service to steady the tremulous hands	N
All wife work the sweet work that busied her so	O
Is finished the dear one is ready to go	O
	-
Not a sob has escaped her all day not a moan	P
But now the tide rushes for she is alone	P
On the fresh shining knapsack she pillows her head	Q
And weeps as a mourner might weep for the dead	Q
She heeds not the three year old baby at play	B
As donning the cap on the carpet he lay	B
Till she feels on her forehead his fingers' soft tips	R
And on her shut eyelids the touch of his lips	R
	-
Mamma is so sorry Mamma is so sad	S
But Archie can make her look up and be glad	S
I've been praying to God as you told me to do	C
That Papa may come back when the battle is thro'	J
He says when we pray that our prayers shall be heard	T
And Mamma don't you always know God keeps his word	T
	-
Around the young comforter stealthily press	U
The arms of his father with sudden caress	U
Then fast to his heart love and duty at strife	V
He snatches with fondest emotion his wife	V
	-
My own love my precious I feel I am strong	W
I know I am brave in opposing the wrong	W
I could stand where the battle was fiercest nor feel	X
One quiver of nerve at the flash of the steel	X
I could gaze on the enemy guiltless of fears	Y
But I quail at the sight of your passionate tears	Z
My calmness forsakes me my thoughts are a whirl	A2
And the stout hearted man is as weak as a girl	A2
I've been proud of your fortitude never a trace	B2
Of yielding all day could I read in your face	B2
But a look that was resolute dauntless and high	A
As ever flashed forth from a patriot's eye	A
I know how you cling to me know that to part	C2
Is tearing the tenderest cords of your heart	C2
Through the length and the breadth of our Valley to day	B
No hand will a costlier sacrifice lay	B
On the altar of Country and Alice sweet wife	V
I never have worshipped you so in my life	V
Poor heart that has held up so brave in the past	D2
Poor heart must it break with its burden at last	D2
	-
The arms thrown about him but tighten their hold	E2
The cheek that he kisses is ashy and cold	E2
And bowed with the grief she so long has suppressed	F2
She weeps herself quiet and calm on his breast	F2
At length in a voice just as steady and clear	J
As if it had never been choked by a tear	J
She raises her eyes with a softened control	G2
And through them her husband looks into her soul	G2
	-
I feel that we each for the other could die	A
Your heart to my own makes the instant reply	A
But dear as you are Love my life and my light	L
I would not consent to your stay if I might	L
No arm for the conflict and on with the rest	F2
Virginia has need of her bravest and best	F2
My heart it must bleed and my cheek will be wet	H2
Yet never believe me with selfish regret	H2
My ardor abates not one jot of its glow	O
Though the tears of the wife and the woman will flow	O
	-
Our cause is so holy so just and so true	J
Thank God I can give a defender like you	J
For home and for children for freedoms for bread	Q
For the house of our God for the graves of our dead	Q
For leave to exist on the soil of our birth	I2
For everything manhood holds dearest on earth	I2
When these are the things that we fight for dare I	A
Hold back my best treasure with plaint or with sigh	A
My cheek would blush crimson my spirit be galled	Q
If he were not there when the muster was called	Q
When we pleaded for peace every right was denied	Q
Every pressing petition turned proudly aside	Q
Now God judge betwixt us God prosper the right	Q
To brave men there's nothing remains but to fight	Q
I grudge you not Douglass die rather than yield	Q
And like the old heroes come home on your shield	Q
	-
The morning is breaking the flush of the dawn	J2
Is warning the soldier 'tis time to be gone	J2
The children around him expectantly wait	Q
His horse all caparisoned paws at the gate	Q
With face strangely pallid no sobbings no sighs	K2
But only a luminous mist in her eyes	K2
His wife is subduing the heart throbs that swell	L2
And calming herself for a quiet farewell	L2
	-
There falls a felt silence the note of a bird	Q
A tremulous twitter is all that is heard	Q
The circle has knelt by the holly bush there	J
And listen there comes the low breathing of prayer	J
	-
Father fold thine arms of pity	Q
Round us as we lowly bow	J
Never have we kneeled before Thee	Q
With such burden'd hearts as now	J
	-
Joy has been our constant portion	M2
And if ill must now befall	H
With a filial acquiescence	N2
We would thank thee for it all	H
	-
In the path of present duty	Q
With Thy hand to lean upon	O2
Questioning not the hidden future	J
May we walk serenely on	O2
	-
For this holy happy home love	P2
Purest bliss that crowns my life	V
For these tender trusting children	M2
For this fondest faithful wife	V
	-
Here I pour my full thanksgiving	Q2
And when heart is torn from heart	Q
Be our sweetest tryst word 'Mizpah '	-
Watch betwixt us while we part	Q
	-
And if never round this altar	J
We should kneel as heretofore	J
If these arms in benediction	M2
Fold my precious ones no more	J
	-
Thou who in her direst anguish	R2
Sooth'dst thy mother's lonely lot	Q
In thy still unchanged compassion	M2
Son of Man forsake them not	Q
	-
	-
The little ones each he has caught to his breast	Q
And clasped them and kissed them with fervent caress	U
Then wordless and tearless with hearts running o'er	J
They part who have never been parted before	J
He springs to his saddle the rein is drawn tight	Q
And Beechenbrook Cottage is lost to his sight	Q
	-
	-
II	A
	-
The feathery foliage has broadened its leaves	S2
And June with its beautiful mornings and eves	S2
Its magical atmosphere breezes and blooms	T2
Its woods all delicious with thousand perfumes	T2
First born of the Summer spoiled pet of the year	J
June delicate queen of the seasons is here	J
	-
The sadness has passed from the dwelling away	B
And quiet serenity brightens the day	B
With innocent prattle her toils to beguile	U2
In the midst of her children the mother must smile	U2
With matronly cares those relentless demands	N
On the strength of her heart and the skill of her hands	N
The hours come tenderly ceaselessly fraught	Q
And leave her small space for the broodings of thought	Q
	-
Thank God busy fingers a solace can find	Q
To lighten the burden of body or mind	Q
And Eden's old curse proves a blessing instead	Q
In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou toil for thy bread	Q
For the bless'd relief in all labours that lurk	V2
Aye thank Him unhappy ones thank Him for work	V2
	-
Thus Alice engages her thoughts and her powers	W2
And industry kindly lends wings to the hours	W2
Poor petty employments they sometimes appear	J
And on her bright needle there plashes a tear	J
Half shame and half passion what would she not dare	J
Her fervid compatriots' struggles to share	J
It irks her the weakness of womanhood then	X2
Yet such are the tears that make heroes of men	X2
	-
She feels the hot blood of the nation beat high	A
With rapture she catches the rallying cry	A
From mountain and valley and hamlet they come	Y2
On every side echoes the roll of the drum	Y2
A people as firm as united as bold	Q
As ever drew blade for the blessings they hold	Q
Step sternly and solemnly forth in their might	Q
And swear on their altars to die for the right	Q
	-
The clangor of muskets the flashing of steel	X
The clatter of spurs on the stout booted heel	X
The waving of banners the resonant tramp	Z2
Of marching battalions the fiery stamp	Z2
Of steeds in their war harness newly decked out	Q
The blast of the bugle the hurry the shout	Q
The terrible energy eager and wild	Q
That lights up the face of man woman and child	Q
That burns on all lips that arouses all powers	W2
Did ever we dream that such times would be ours	W2
	-
One thought is absorbing with giant control	G2
With deadliest earnest the national soul	G2
The right of self government crown of our pride	Q
Right bought with the sacredest blood is denied	Q
Shall we tamely resign what our enemy craves	A3
No martyrs we may be we cannot be slaves	A3
Fair women who naught but indulgence have seen	F
Who never have learned what denial could mean	F
	-
Who deign not to clipper their own dainty feet	Q
Whose wants swarthy handmaids stand ready to meet	Q
Whose fingers decline the light kerchief to hem	B3
What aid in this struggle is hoped for from them	B3
	-
Yet see how they haste from their bowers of ease	D
Their dormant capacities fired to seize	D
Every feminine weapon their skill can command	Q
To labor with head and with heart and with hand	Q
They stitch the rough jacket they shape the coarse shirt	Q
Unheeding though delicate fingers be hurt	Q
They bind the strong haversack knit the grey glove	P2
Nor falter nor pause in their service of love	P2
	-
When ever were people subdued overthrown	P
With women to cheer them on brave as our own	P
With maidens and mothers at work on their knees	D
When ever were soldiers as fearless as these	D
	-
June's flower wreathed sceptre is dropped with a sigh	A
And forth like an empress steps stately July	A
She sits all unveiled amidst sunshine and balms	C3
As Zenobia sat in her City of Palms	C3
	-
Not yet has the martial horizon grown dun	M2
Not yet has the terrible conflict begun	M2
But the tumult of legions the rush and the roar	J
Break over our borders like waves on the shore	J
Along the Potomac the confident foe	O
Stands marshalled for onset prepared at a blow	O
To vanquish the daring rebellion and fling	Q2
Utter ruin at once on the arrogant thing	Q2
	-
How sovran the silence that broods o'er the sky	A
And ushers the twenty first morn of July	A
Date written in fire on history's scroll	G2
Date drawn in deep blood lines on many a soul	G2
	-
There is quiet at Beechenbrook Alice's brow	J
Is wearing a Sabbath tranquility now	J
As softly she reads from the page on her knee	Q
Thou wilt keep him in peace who is stayed upon Thee	Q
When Sophy bursts breathlessly into the room	I
Oh mother we hear it we hear it the boom	I
Of the fast and the fierce cannonading it shook	D3
The ground till it trembled along by the brook	D3
	-
One instant the listener sways in her seat	Q
The paralysed heart has forgotten to beat	Q
The next with the speed and the frenzy of fear	J
She gains the green hillock and pauses to hear	J
	-
Again and again the reverberant sound	Q
Is fearfully felt in the tremulous ground	Q
Again and again on their senses it thrills	E3
Like thunderous echoes astray in the hills	E3
	-
On tip toe the summer wind lifting his hair	J
With nostril expanded and scenting the air	J
Like a mettled young war horse that tosses his mane	F3
And frettingly champs at the bit and the rein	F3
Stands eager exultant a twelve year old boy	G3
His face all aflame with a rapturous joy	G3
	-
That's music for heroes in battle array	B
Oh mother I feel like a Roman to day	B
The Romans I read of in Plutarch Yes men	X2
Thought it noble to die for their liberties then	X2
And I've wondered if soldiers were ever so bold	Q
So gallant and brave as those heroes of old	Q
There listen that volley peals out the reply	A
They prove it is sweet for their country to die	A
How grand it must be what a pride what a joy	G3
And I can do nothing I'm only a boy	G3
	-
The fervid hand drops as he ceases to speak	H3
And the eloquent crimson fades out on his cheek	H3
	-
Oh Beverly brother It never would do	Q
Who comforts mamma and who helps her like you	Q
She sends to the battle her darlingest one	M2
She could not give both of them husband and son	M2
If she lose you what's left her in life to enjoy	G3
Oh no I am glad you are only a boy	G3
And Sophy looks up with her tenderest air	J
And kisses the fingers that toy with her hair	J
	-
For her who all silent and motionless stands	N
And over her heart locks her quivering hands	N
With white lips apart and with eyes that dilate	Q
As if the low thunder were sounding her fate	Q
What racking suspenses what agonies stir	J
What spectres these echoes are rousing for her	J
	-
Brave natur'd yet quaking high souled yet so pale	I3
Is it thus that the wife of a soldier should quail	I3
And shudder and shrink at the boom of a gun	M2
As only a faint hearted girl should have done	M2
Ah wait until custom has blunted the keen	F
Cutting edge of that sound and no woman I ween	F
Will hear it with pulses more equal more free	Q
From feminine terrors and weakness than she	Q
	-
The sun sinks serenely a lingering look	D3
He flings at the mists that steal over the brook	D3
Like nuns that come forth in the twilight to pray	B
Till their blushes are seen through their mantles of grey	B
	-
The gay hearted children but lightly oppressed	Q
Find perfect relief on their pillow of rest	Q
For Alice no bless'd forgetfulness comes	J3
The wail of the bugles the roll of the drums	J3
The musket's sharp crack the artillery's roar	J
The flashing of bayonets dripping with gore	J
The moans of the dying the horror the dread	Q
The ghastliness gathering over the dead	Q
Oh these are the visions of anguish and pain	F
The phantoms of terror that troop through her brain	F
	-
She pauses again and again on the floor	J
Which the moonlight has brightened so mockingly o'er	J
She wrings her cold hands with a groan of despair	J
Oh God have compassion my darling is there	J
	-
All placidly dewily freshly the dawn	F
Comes stealing in pulseless tranquility on	F
More freely she breathes in its balminess though	O
The forehead it kisses is pallid with woe	O
	-
Through the long summer sunshine the Cottage is stirred	Q
By passers who brokenly fling them a word	Q
Such tidings of slaughter The enemy cowers	J3
He breaks He is flying Manassas is ours	J3
	-
'Tis evening and Archie alone on the grass	J3
Sits watching the fire flies gleam as they pass	J3
When sudden he rushes too eager to wait	Q
Mamma there's an ambulance stops at the gate	Q
	-
Suspense then is past he is borne from the field	Q
God help me God grant it be not on his shield	Q
And Alice her passionate soul in her eyes	J3
And hope and fear winging each quicken'd step flies	J3
Embraces with frantical wildness the form	K3
Of her husband and finds it is living and warm	K3
	-
	-
III	A
	-
Ye who by the couches of languishing ones	J3
Have watched through the rising and setting of suns	J3
Who silent behind the close curtain withdrawn	F
Scarce know that the current of being sweeps on	F
To whom outer life is unreal untrue	Q
A world with whose moils ye have nothing to do	Q
Who feel that the day with its multiform rounds	J3
Is full of discordant impertinent sounds	J3
Who speak in low whispers and stealthily tread	Q
As if a faint footfall were something to dread	Q
Who find all existence its gladness its gloom	I
Enclosed by the walls of that limited room	I
Ye only can measure the sleepless unrest	Q
That lies like a night mare on Alice's breast	Q
	-
Days come and days go and she watches the strife	V
So evenly balanced 'twixt death and 'twixt life	V
Thanks God he still breathes as each evening takes wing	Q2
And dares not to think what the morrow may bring	Q2
	-
In the lone ghostly midnight he raves as he lies	J3
With death's ashen pallidness dimming his eyes	J3
He shouts the sharp war cry he rallies his men	F
He is on the red field of Manassas again	F
	-
Now courage my comrades Keep steady lie low	O
Wait like the couch'd lion to spring on your foe	O
Ye'll face without flinching the cannons' grim mouth	L3
For ye're 'Knights of the Horse Shoe' ye're Sons of the South	L3
There's Jackson how brave he rides coursing at will	M3
Midst the prostrated lines on the crest of the hill	M3
God keep him for what will we do if he falls	J3
Be ready good fellows be cool when he calls	J3
To the charge Oh we'll beat them we'll turn them and then	F
We'll ride them down madly On Onward my men	F
	-
The feverish frenzy o'erwearies him soon	F
And back on his pillows he sinks in a swoon	F
	-
And sometimes when Alice is wetting his lip	N3
He turns from the draught and refuses to sip	N3
'Tis sweet pretty angel but yonder there lies	J3
A famishing comrade with death in his eyes	J3
His need is far greater Sir Philip I think	O3
Or was it Sir Philip go go let him drink	O3
	-
And oft with a sort of bewildered amaze	J3
On her face he would fasten the wistfullest gaze	J3
You are kind but a hospital nurse cannot be	Q
Like Alice my tenderest Alice to me	Q
Oh I know there's at Beechenbrook many a tear	J
As she asks all the day 'Will he never be here '	-
	-
But Nature kind healer brings sovereignest balm	P3
And strokes the wild pulses with coolness and calm	P3
	-
The conflict so equal so stubborn is past	Q
And life gains the hardly won battle at last	Q
How sweet through the long convalescence to lie	A
And from the low window gaze out at the sky	A
And float as the zephyrs so tranquilly do	Q
Aloft in the depths of ineffable blue	Q
In painless delicious half consciousness brood	Q
No duties to cumber no claims to intrude	Q
Receptive as childhood from trouble as free	Q
And feel it is bliss enough simply to be	Q
	-
For Alice what pencil can picture her joy	G3
So perfect so thankful so free from annoy	G3
As her lips press the lotus bound chalice and drain	F
That exquisite blessedness born out of pain	F
Oh not in her maidenhood blushing and sweet	Q
When Douglass first poured out his love at her feet	Q
And not when a shrinking and beautiful bride	Q
With worshipping fondness she clung to his side	Q
And not in those holiest moments of life	V
When first she was held to his heart as his wife	V
And never in motherhood's earliest bliss	J3
Had she tasted a happiness rounded like this	J3
	-
And Douglass safe sheltered from war's rude alarms	J3
Finds Eden's lost precincts again in her arms	J3
He hears afar off in the distance the roar	J
And the lash of the billows that break on the shore	J
Of his isle of enchantment his haven of rest	Q
And rapturous languor steals over his breast	Q
	-
He bathes in the sunlight of Alice's smiles	J3
He wraps himself round with love's magical wiles	J3
His sweet iterations pall not on her ear	J
I love you I love you she never can hear	J
That cadence too often its musical roll	G2
Wakes ever an echoed reply in her soul	G2
	-
Do visions of trial of warning of woe	O
Loom dark in the future of doubt Do they know	O
They are hiving of honied remembrance a store	J
To live on when summer and sunshine are o'er	J
Do they feel that their island of beauty at last	Q
Must be rent by the tempest be swept by the blast	Q
Do they dream that afar on the wild wintry main	F
Their love freighted bark must be driven again	F
	-
Bless God for the wisdom that curtains so tight	Q
To morrow's enjoyments or griefs from our sight	Q
Bless God for the ignorance darkness and doubt	Q
That girdle so kindly our future about	Q
	-
The crutches are brought and the invalid's strength	Q3
Is able to measure the lawn's gravel'd length	Q3
And under the beeches once more he reclines	J3
And hears the wind plaintively moan through the pines	J3
His children around him with frolic and play	B
Cheat autumn's mild listlessness out of the day	B
And Alice the sunshine all flecking her book	D3
Reads low to the chime of the murmuring brook	D3
	-
But the world's rushing tide washes up to his feet	Q
And leaps the soft barriers that bound his retreat	Q
The tumult of camps surges out on the breeze	J3
And ever seems mocking his Capuan ease	J3
He dare not be happy or tranquil or blest	Q
While his soil by the feet of invaders is prest	Q
What brooks it though still he be pale as a ghost	Q
If he languish or fail let him fail at his post	Q
	-
	-
The gums by the brook side are crimson and brown	F
The leaves of the ash flicker goldenly down	F
The roses that trellis the porches have lost	Q
Their brightness and bloom at the touch of the frost	Q
The ozier twined seat by the beeches no more	J
Looks tempting and cheerful and sweet as of yore	J
The water glides darkly and mournfully on	F
As Alice sits watching it Douglass has gone	F
	-
	-
	-
	-
IV	V
	-
	-
I am weary and worn I am hungry and chill	M3
And cuttingly strikes the keen blast o'er the hill	M3
All day I have ridden through snow and through sleet	Q
With nothing not even a cracker to eat	Q
But now as I rest by the bivouac fire	J
Whose blaze leaps up merrily higher and higher	J
Impatient as Roland who neighs to be fed	Q
For Caleb to bring me my bacon and bread	Q
I'll warm my cold heart that is aching and lone	F
By thinking of you love my Alice my own	F
	-
I turn a deaf ear to the scream of the wind	Q
I leave the rude camp and the forest behind	Q
And Beechenbrook wrapped in its raiment of white	Q
Is tauntingly filling my vision to night	Q
I catch my sweet little ones' innocent mirth	I2
I watch your dear face as you sit at the hearth	R3
And I know by the tender expression I see	Q
I know that my darling is musing of me	Q
Does her thought dim the blaze Does it shed through the room	I
A chilly unseen and yet palpable gloom	I
Ah then we are equal You share all my pain	F
And I halve your blessedness with you again	F
	-
Don't think that my hardships are bitter to bear	J
Don't think I repine at the soldier's rough fare	J
If ever a thought so unworthy steals on	F
I look upon Ashby and lo it is gone	F
Such chivalry fortitude spirit and tone	F
Make brighter and stronger and prouder my own	F
Oh Beverly boy on his white steed I ween	F
A princelier presence has never been seen	F
And as yonder he lies from the groups all apart	Q
I bow to him loyally bow with my heart	Q
	-
What brave buoyant letters you write sweet they ring	Q2
Through my soul like the blast of a trumpet and bring	Q2
Such a flame to my eye such a flush to my cheek	H3
That often my hand will unconsciously seek	H3
The hilt of my sword as I read and I feel	X
As the warrior does when he flashes the steel	X
In fiery circles and shouts in his might	Q
For the heroes behind him to follow its light	Q
True wife of a soldier If doubt or dismay	B
Had ever within me one instant held sway	B
Your words wield a spell that would bid them be gone	F
Like bodiless ghosts at the touch of the dawn	F
	-
Could the veriest craven that cowers and quails	J3
Before the vast horde that insults and assails	J3
Our land and our liberties could he to night	Q
Sit here on the ice girdled log where I write	Q
And look on the hopeful bright brows of the men	F
Who have toiled all the day over mountain through glen	F
Half clothed and unfed would he doubt would he dare	J
In the face of such proof yield again to despair	J
	-
The hum of their voices comes laden with cheer	J
As the wind wafts a musical swell to my ear	J
Wild clarion catches now flute like and low	O
Would you like me to give you their Song of the Snow	O
	-
Halt the march is over	J
Day is almost done	F
Loose the cumbrous knapsack	S3
Drop the heavy gun	F
Chilled and wet and weary	Q
Wander to and fro	O
Seeking wood to kindle	T3
Fires amidst the snow	O
	-
Round the bright blaze gather	J
Heed not sleet nor cold	Q
Ye are Spartan soldiers	J3
Stout and brave and bold	Q
Never Xerxian army	Q
Yet subdued a foe	O
Who but asked a blanket	Q
On a bed of snow	O
	-
Shivering midst the darkness	J3
Christian men are found	Q
There devoutly kneeling	Q2
On the frozen ground	Q
	-
Pleading for their country	Q
In its hour of woe	O
For its soldiers marching	Q2
Shoeless through the snow	O
	-
Lost in heavy slumbers	J3
Free from toil and strife	V
Dreaming of their dear ones	J3
Home and child and wife	V
Tentless they are lying	Q2
While the fires burn low	O
Lying in their blankets	J3
Midst December's snow	O
	-
Come Sophy my blossom I've something to say	J3
Will chase for a moment your gambols away	J3
To day as we climbed the steep mountain path o'er	J
I noticed a bare footed lad in my corps	J3
How comes it I asked you look careful and bold	Q
How comes it you're marching unshod through the cold	Q
	-
Ah sir I'm a poor lonely orphan you see	J3
No mother no friends that are caring for me	J3
If I'm wounded or captured or killed in the war	J3
'Twill matter to nobody Colonel Dunbar	J
	-
Now Sophy your needles dear Knit him some socks	J3
And send the poor fellow a pair in my box	J3
Then he'll know and his heart with the thought will be filled	Q
There is one little maiden will care if he's killed	Q
	-
The fire burns dimly and scattered around	Q
The men lie asleep on the snow covered ground	Q
But ere in my blanket I wrap me to rest	Q
I hold you my darling close close to my breast	Q
God love you God grant you His comforting light	Q
I kiss you a thousand times over Good night	Q
	-
	-
	-
	-
V	J3
	-
	-
To morrow is Christmas and clapping his hands	J3
Little Archie in joyful expectancy stands	J3
And watches the shadows now short and now tall	H
That momently dance up and down on the wall	H
	-
Drawn curtains of crimson shut out the cold night	Q
And the parlor is pleasant with odours and light	Q
The soft lamp suspended its mellowness throws	J3
O'er cluster'd geranium jasmine and rose	J3
The sleeping canary hangs caged midst the blooms	J3
A Sybarite slumberer steeped in perfumes	J3
For Alice still clings to her birds and her flowers	J3
Sweet tokens of kindlier happier hours	J3
	-
To morrow is Christmas but Beverly say	J3
Will it do to be glad when Papa is away	J3
And the face that is tricksy and blythe as can be	J3
Tries vainly to temper its shadowless glee	J3
	-
For you pet I'm sure it is right to be glad	Q
'Tis a pitiful thing to see little ones sad	Q
But for Sophy and me who are older you know	O
We dare not be glad when we look at the snow	O
I shrink from this comfort this light and this heat	Q
This plenty to wear and this plenty to eat	Q
When the soldiers who fight for us die for us lie	A
With nothing around and above but the sky	A
When their clothes are so light and the rations they deal	X
Are only a morsel of bacon and meal	X
And how can I fold my thick blankets around	Q
When I know that my father's asleep on the ground	Q
I'm ashamed to be happy or merry or free	J3
As if war and its trials were nothing to me	J3
Oh I never can know any frolic or fun	F
Any real mad romps till the battles are done	F
And the face of the boy so heroic and fair	J
Is touched with the singular shadow of care	J
Sophy ceases her warbling subdues her soft mirth	I2
And draws her low ottoman up to the hearth	R3
	-
But brother what good would it do to refuse	J3
The comforts and blessings God gives us or use	J3
Them quite with indifference as much as to say	J3
We care not how soon they are taken away	J3
I am sure I would give my last blanket and spread	Q
My pretty blue cloak at night over my bed	Q
Mamma you know covers herself with her shawl	H
Since we've sent all our blankets but then it's too small	H
Would Papa be less hungry or cold do you think	O3
If we had too little to eat or to drink	O3
So I mean to be busy I mean to be glad	Q
Mamma says there's time enough yet to be sad	Q
I'll work for the soldiers I'll pray and I'll plan	F
And just be as happy as ever I can	F
I've made the grey shirt and I've finished the socks	J3
So come let us help they are packing the box	J3
	-
How grateful the task is to Alice her cares	J3
Are quite put aside and her countenance wears	J3
A look of enjoyment as eager as bright	Q
As Santa Claus brings little dreamers to night	Q
For Douglass away in his camp is to share	J
The daintiest cates that her larder can spare	J
	-
The turkey well seasoned and tenderly browned	Q
Is flanked by the spiciest a la mode round	Q
The great priestly ham in its juiciest pride	Q
Is there with the tenderest surloin beside	Q
Neat bottles suggestive of ketchups and wines	J3
And condiments racy of various kinds	J3
And firm rolls of butter as yellow as gold	Q
And patties and biscuit most rare to behold	Q
And sauces that richest of odors betray	J3
Are marshalled in most appetizing array	J3
Then Beverly brings of his nuts a full store	J3
And Archie has apples a dozen or more	J3
While Sophy with gratified housewifery makes	J3
Her present of spicy Confederate cakes	J3
	-
And then in a snug little corner there lies	J3
A pacquet will brighten the orphan boy's eyes	J3
For Beverly claims it a pleasure to use	J3
His last cherish'd hoardings in buying him shoes	J3
Sophy's socks too are there and she catches afar	J
There's somebody cares for me Colonel Dunbar	J
	-
What subtlest of essences sovereign to cheer	J
What countless uncatalogu'd tokens are here	J
What lavender'd memories tenderly green	F
Lie hidden these grosser of viands between	F
What food for the heart life unreckon'd untold	Q
What manna enclosed in its chalice of gold	Q
What caskets of sweets that Love only unlocks	J3
What mysteries Douglass will find in the box	J3
	-
	-
	-
	-
	-
VI	A
	-
	-
The lull of the Winter is over and Spring	Q2
Comes back as delicious and buoyant a thing	Q2
As airy and fairy and lightsome and bland	Q
As if not a sorrow was dark'ning the land	Q
So little has Nature of passion or part	Q
In the woes and the throes of humanity's heart	Q
	-
The wild tide of battle runs red dashes high	A
And blots out the splendour of earth and of sky	A
The blue air is heavy and sulph'rous and dun	F
And the breeze on its wings bears the boom of the gun	F
In faster and fiercer and deadlier shocks	J3
The thunderous billows are hurled on the rocks	J3
And our Valley becomes amid Spring's softest breath	U3
The valley alas of the shadow of death	U3
The crash of the onset the plunge and the roll	G2
Reach down to the depth of each patriot's soul	G2
It quivers for since it is human it must	Q
But never a tremor of doubt or distrust	Q
Once blanches the cheek or is wrung from the mouth	L3
Or lurks in the eye of the sons of the South	L3
	-
What need for dismay Let the live surges roar	J3
And leap in their fury our fastnesses o'er	J
And threaten our beautiful Valley to fill	M3
With rapine and ruin more terrible still	M3
What fear we See Jackson his sword in his hand	Q
Like the stern rocks around him immovable stand	Q
The wisdom the skill and the strength that he boasts	J3
Sought ever from him who is Leader of Hosts	J3
He speaks in the name of his God lo the tide	Q
The red sea of battle is seen to divide	Q
The pathway of victory cleaves the dark flood	Q
And the foe is o'erwhelmed in a deluge of blood	Q
The spirit of Alice no longer is bowed	Q
By the troubles and tumults and terrors that crowd	Q
So closely around her the willow's lithe form	K3
Bends meekly to meet the wild rush of the storm	K3
	-
Yet pale as Cassandra unconscious of joy	G3
With visions of Greeks at the gates of her Troy	G3
All day she has waited and watched on the lawn	F
Till the purple and gold of the sunset are gone	F
For the battle draws near her few leagues intervene	F
Her home and that Valley of slaughter between	F
	-
The tidings and rumors come thick and come fast	Q
As riders fly hotly and breathlessly past	Q
They tell of the onslaught the headlong attack	S3
Of the foe with a quadruple force at his back	S3
They boast how they hurl themselves shiver and fall	H
Before their stout rampart the valiant Stonewall	H
	-
At length with the gradual fading of day	J3
The tokens of battle are floated away	J3
The booming no longer makes sullen the air	J
And the silence of night seems as holy as prayer	J
	-
Gray shadows still linger the beeches among	V3
And scarce has the earliest matin been sung	V3
Ere Alice with Beverly pale at her side	Q
Yet firm as his mother is ready to ride	Q
	-
With sympathy womanly tender divine	F
With lint and with bandage with bread and with wine	F
She hastes to the battle field eager to bear	J
Relief to the wounded and perishing there	J
To breathe like an angel of mercy the breath	U3
Of peace over brows that are fainting in death	U3
	-
She dares not to stir with a question her woe	O
One word and the bitter brimm'd heart would o'erflow	H
But speechless and moveless and stony of eye	A
Scarce conscious of aught in the earth or the sky	A
In a swoon of the heart all her senses have reeled	Q
But she prays for endurance for here is the field	Q
The flight and pursuit so harassing so hot	Q
Have drifted all combatants far from the spot	Q
And through the sparse woodlands and over the plain	F
Lie gorily scattered the wounded and slain	F
Oh the sickness the shudder the quailing of fear	J
As it leaps to her lips What if Douglass be here	J
	-
Yet she frames not a question her spirit can bear	J
Oh anything all things but hopeless despair	J
Does her darling lie stretched on the slope of yon hill	H
Let her doubt let her hug the suspense if she will	H
	-
	-
She watches each ambulance burden with dread	Q
She loots in the faces of dying and dead	Q
And hour after hour with steady control	H
She bends to her task all the strength of her soul	H
She comforts the wounded with pity's sweet care	J
And the spirit that's passing she speeds with her prayer	J
	-
She starts as she hears from her stout hearted boy	G3
A wild exclamation half doubt and half joy	G3
	-
Oh Surgeon some brandy he's fainting Ah now	F
The colour comes back to his cheek and his brow	F
He breathes again speaks again listen you are	J
'An orderly' is it 'of Colonel Dunbar '	-
'He fought like a lion ' I knew it and passed	Q
Untouched through the battle 'unhurt to the last '	-
My father is safe mother safe what a joy	G3
And here is Macpherson our barefooted boy	G3
	-
Poor Alice her grief has been tearless and dumb	Y2
But the pressure once lifted her senses succumb	Y2
Too quick the revulsion too glad the surprise	J3
The mists of unconsciousness curtain her eyes	J3
'Tis only a moment they suffer eclipse	J3
And words of thanksgiving soon thrill on her lips	J3
	-
To Beechenbrook's quiet with tenderest care	J
They hasten the wounded wan soldier to bear	J
And never hung mother more patiently o'er	J
The couch of the child her own bosom that bore	J3
Than Alice above the lone orphan who lay	H
Submissively breathing his spirit away	H
He knows that existence is ebbing his brain	F
Is lucid and calm in the pauses of pain	F
But his round boyish cheek with no weeping is wet	Q
And his smile is not touched with a shade of regret	Q
	-
No murmur is uttered no lingering sigh	A
Escapes him so young yet so willing to die	A
His garment of flesh he has worn undefiled	A
His faith is the beautiful faith of a child	A
He knows that the Crucified hung on the tree	J3
That the pathway to bliss might be open and free	J3
He believes that the cup has been drained he can find	A
Not a drop of the wrath that had filled it behind	A
If ever a doubt or misgiving assails	J3
His finger he puts on the print of the nails	J3
If sometimes there springs an emotion of fear	J
He lays his cold hand on the mark of the spear	J
He thinks of his darling dead mother the light	A
Of the Heavenly City falls full on his sight	A
And under the rows of the palms by the brim	W3
Of the river he knows she is waiting for him	W3
	-
But the present comes back and on Alice's ear	J
Fall whispers like these as she pauses to hear	J
	-
Only a private and who will care	J
When I may pass away	H
Or how or why I perish or where	J
I mix with the common clay	H
They will fill my empty place again	F
With another as bold and brave	V
And they'll blot me out ere the Autumn rain	F
Has freshened my nameless grave	V
	-
Only a private it matters not	A
That I did my duty well	H
That all through a score of battles I fought	A
And then like a soldier fell	H
The country I died for never will heed	A
My unrequited claim	X3
And history cannot record the deed	A
For she never has heard my name	X3
	-
Only a private and yet I know	O
When I heard the rallying call	H
I was one of the very first to go	O
And I'm one of the many who fall	H
But as here I lie it is sweet to feel	H
That my honor's without a stain	F
That I only fought for my Country's weal	H
And not for glory or gain	F
	-
Only a private yet He who reads	J3
Through the guises of the heart	A
Looks not at the splendour of the deeds	J3
But the way we do our part	A
And when He shall take us by the hand	A
And our small service own	F
There'll a glorious band of privates stand	A
As victors around the throne	F
	-
The breath of the morning is heavy and chill	H
And gloomily lower the mists on the hill	H
The winds through the beeches are shivering low	H
With a plaintive and sad miserere of woe	H
A quiet is over the Cottage a dread	A
Clouds the children's sweet faces Macpherson is dead	A
	-
	-
	-
	-
VII	V
	-
	-
'Tis Autumn and Nature the forest has hung	V3
With arras more gorgeous than ever was flung	V3
From Gobelin looms all so varied so rare	J
As never the princeliest palaces were	J
Soft curtains of haze the far mountains enfold	A
Whose warp is of purple whose woof is of gold	A
And the sky bends as peacefully purely above	V
As if earth breathed an atmosphere only of love	V
	-
But thick as white asters in Autumn are found	A
The tents all bestrewing the carpeted ground	A
The din of a camp with its stir and its strife	V
Its motley and strange multitudinous life	V
Floats upward along the brown slopes till it fills	J3
The echoing hollows afar in the hills	J3
	-
'Tis the twilight of Sabbath and sweet through the air	J
Swells the blast of the bugle that summons to prayer	J
The signal is answered and soon in the glen	F
Sits Colonel Dunbar in the midst of his men	F
	-
The Chaplain advances with reverent face	J3
Where lies a felled oak he has chosen his place	J3
On the stump of an ash tree the Bible he lays	J3
And they bow on the grass as he solemnly prays	J3
	-
Underneath thine open sky	A
Father as we bend the knee	J3
May we feel thy presence nigh	A
Nothing 'twixt our souls and thee	J3
	-
We are weary cares and woes	J3
Lay their weight on every breast	A
And each heart before thee knows	J3
That it sighs for inward rest	A
	-
Thou canst lift this weight away	H
Thou canst bid these sighings cease	J3
Thou canst walk these waves and say	H
To their restless tossings Peace	J3
	-
We are tempted snares abound	A
Sin its treacherous meshes weaves	J3
And temptations strew us round	A
Thicker than the Autumn leaves	J3
	-
Midst these perils mark our path	Y3
Thou who art 'the life the way '	-
Rend each fatal wile that hath	Y3
Power to lead our souls astray	H
	-
Prince of Peace we follow Thee	J3
Plant thy banner in our sight	A
Let thy shadowy legions be	J3
Guards around our tents to night	A
	-
Through the aisles of the forest far stretching and dim	W3
As a cloister'd Cathedral the notes of a hymn	W3
Float tenderly upward now soft and now clear	J
As if twilight had silenced its breathing to hear	J
Now swelling a lofty triumphant refrain	F
Now sobbing itself into sadness again	F
	-
The Bible is opened and stillness profound	A
Broods over the listeners scattered around	A
And warning and comfort and blessing and balm	P3
Distil from the beautiful words of the Psalm	Z3
Then simply and earnestly pleading his face	J3
Lit up with persuasive and eloquent grace	J3
The Chaplain pours forth from the warmth of his heart	A
His words of entreaty and truth ere they part	A
	-
I see before me valiant men	F
With courage high and true	Q
Who fight as only heroes fight	A
And die as heroes do	Q
	-
Your serried ranks have never quailed	Q
Before the battle shock	A4
Whose maddest fury beats and breaks	J3
Like foam against the rock	A4
	-
Ye've borne the deadly brunt of war	J3
Through storm and cold and heat	Q
Yet never have ye turned your backs	J3
Nor fled before defeat	Q
	-
Behind you lie your cheerful homes	J3
And all of sweet or fair	J
The only remnants earth has left	Q
Of Eden life are there	J
	-
Ye know that many a once bright cheek	H3
Consuming care makes wan	F
Ye know the old dear happiness	J3
That blest your hearths is gone	F
	-
Ye see your comrades smitten down	F
The young the good the brave	V
Ye feel the turf ye tread to day	Q
May be to morrow's grave	V
	-
Yet not a murmur meets the ear	J
Nor discontent has sway	Q
And not a sullen brow is seen	F
Through all the camp to day	Q
	-
No Greek in Greece's palmiest days	J3
His javelin ever threw	Q
Impelled by more heroic zeal	H
Or nobler aim than you	Q
	-
No mailed warrior ever bore	J3
Aloft his shining lance	J3
More proudly through the tales that fire	J
The page of old romance	J3
	-
Oh soldiers well ye bear your part	Q
The world awards its praise	J3
Be sure this grandest tourney o'er	J
'Twill crown you with its bays	J3
	-
But there's sublimer work than even	F
To free your native sod	Q
Ye may be loyal to your land	Q
Yet traitors to your God	Q
	-
No Moslem heaven for him who falls	J3
A bribed requital doles	J3
And while ye save your country ye	J3
Alas may lose your souls	J3
	-
No glorious deeds can urge their claim	X3
No merits entrance win	F
The pierced hand of Christ alone	F
Must freely let you in	F
	-
Oh sirs there lurks a fiercer foe	V
Than this that treads your soil	H
Who springs from unseen ambuscades	J3
To drag you as his spoil	H
	-
He drugs the heedless conscience till	H
No wary watch it keeps	J3
And parleys with the treacherous heart	Q
While fast the warder sleeps	J3
	-
He captive leads the wavering will	H
With specious words and fair	J
And enters the beleaguered soul	H
And rules a conqueror there	J
	-
Will ye who fling defiance forth	B4
Against a temporal foe	V
And rather die than stoop to wear	J
The chains that gall you so	V
	-
Will ye succumb beneath a power	J
That grasps at full control	H
And binds its helpless victims down	F
In servitude of soul	H
	-
Nay act like brave men as ye are	J
Nor let the despot sin	F
Wrest those immortal rights away	Q
Which Christ has died to win	F
	-
For Heaven best home true fatherland	Q
Bear toil reproach and loss	J3
Your highest honor holiest name	X3
The soldiers of the Cross	J3
	-
	-
	-
	-
VIII	V
	-
	-
My Douglass my darling there once was a time	C4
When we to each other confessed the sublime	C4
And perfect sufficiency love could bestow	V
On the hearts that have learned its completeness to know	V
We felt that we too had a well spring of joy	G3
That earthly convulsions could never destroy	G3
A mossy sealed fountain so cool and so bright	Q
It could solace the soul let it thirst as it might	Q
	-
'Tis easy while happiness strews in our path	Y3
The richest and costliest blessings it hath	Y3
'Tis easy to say that no sorrow no pain	F
Could utterly beggar our spirits again	F
'Tis easy to sit in the sunshine and speak	H3
Of the darkness and storm with a smile on the cheek	H3
	-
As hungry and cold and with weariness spent	Q
You droop in your saddle or crouch in your tent	Q
Can you feel that the love so entire so true	Q
The love that we dreamed of is all things to you	Q
That come what there may desolation or loss	J3
The prick of the thorn or the weight of the cross	J3
You can bear it nor feel you are wholly bereft	Q
While the bosom that beats for you only is left	Q
While the birdlings are spared that have made it so blest	Q
Can you look undismayed on the wreck of the nest	Q
	-
There's a love that is tenderer sweeter than this	J3
That is fuller of comfort and blessing and bliss	J3
That never can fail us whatever befall	H
Unchanging unwearied undying through all	H
We have need of the support the staff and the rod	Q
Beloved we'll lean on the bosom of God	Q
	-
You guess what I fain would keep hidden you know	V
Ere now that the trail of the insolent foe	V
Leaves ruin behind it disastrous and dire	J
And burns through our Valley a pathway of fire	J
Our beautiful home as I write it I weep	D4
Our beautiful home is a smouldering heap	D4
And blackened and blasted and grim and forlorn	F
Its chimneys stand stark in the mists of the morn	F
	-
I stood in my womanly helplessness weak	H3
Though I felt a brave color was kindling my cheek	H3
And I plead by the sacredest things of their lives	J3
By the love that they bore to their children their wives	J3
By the homes left behind them whose joys they had shared	Q
By the God that should judge them that mine should be spared	Q
	-
As well might I plead with the whirlwind to stay	Q
As it crashingly cuts through the forest its way	Q
I know that my eye flashed a passionate ire	J
As they scornfully flung me their answer of fire	J
	-
Why harrow your heart with the grief and the pain	F
Why paint you the picture that's scorching my brain	F
Why speak of the night when I stood on the lawn	F
And watched the last flame die away in the dawn	F
'Tis over that vision of terror of woe	V
Its horrors I would not recall let them go	V
I am calm when I think what I suffered them for	J3
I grudge not the quota I pay to the war	J3
	-
But Douglass deep down in the core of my heart	Q
There's a throbbing an aching that will not depart	Q
For memory mourns with a wail of despair	J
The loss of her treasures the subtle the rare	J
Precious things over which she delighted to pore	J3
Which nothing ah nothing can ever restore	J3
	-
The rose covered porch where I sat as your bride	Q
The hearth where at twilight I leaned at your side	Q
The low cushioned window seat where I would lie	A
With my head on your knee and look out on the sky	A
The chamber all holy with love and with prayer	J
The motherhood memories clustering there	J
The vines that your hand has delighted to train	F
The trees that you planted Oh never again	F
Can love build us up such a bower of bliss	J3
Oh never can home be as hallow'd as this	J3
	-
Thank God there's a dwelling not builded with hands	J3
Whose pearly foundation immovable stands	J3
There struggles alarms and disquietudes cease	J3
And the blissfulest balm of the spirit is peace	J3
Small trial 'twill seem when our perils are past	Q
And we enter the house of our Father at last	Q
Light trouble that here in the night of our stay	Q
The blast swept our wilderness lodging away	Q
	-
The children dear hearts it is touching to see	J3
My Beverly's beautiful kindness to me	J3
So buoyant his mein so heroic resigned	Q
The boy has the soul of his father I find	Q
Not a childish complaint or regret have I heard	Q
Not even from Archie a petulant word	Q
Once only a tear moistened Sophy's bright cheek	H3
'Papa has no home now ' 'twas all she could speak	H3
	-
A stranger I wander midst strangers and yet	Q
I never no not for a moment forget	Q
That my heart has a home just as real as true	Q
And as warm as if Beechenbrook sheltered me too	Q
God grant that this refuge from sorrow and pain	F
This blessedest haven of peace may remain	F
And then though disaster still sharper befall	H
I think I can patiently bear with it all	H
For the rarest most exquisite bliss of my life	V
Is wrapped in a word Douglass I am your wife	V
	-
	-
	-
	-
IX	J3
	-
	-
When fierce and fast thronging calamities rush	E4
Resistless as destiny o'er us and crush	E4
The life from the quivering heart till we feel	H
Like the victim whose body is broke on the wheel	H
When we think we have touched the far limit at last	Q
One throe and the point of endurance is passed	Q
When we shivering hang on the verge of despair	J
There still is capacity left us to bear	J
	-
The storm of the winter the smile of the Spring	Q2
No respite no pause and no hopefulness bring	Q2
The demon of carnage still breathes his hot breath	U3
And fiercely goes forward the harvest of death	U3
	-
Days painfully drag their slow burden along	W
And the pulse that is beating so steady and strong	W
Stands still as there comes from the echoing shore	J3
Of the winding and clear Rappahannock the roar	J3
Of conflict so fell that the silvery flood	Q
Runs purple and rapid and ghastly with blood	Q
	-
Grand army of martyrs though victory waves	J3
Them onward her march must be over their graves	J3
They feel it they know it yet steadier each	F4
Close phalanx moves into the desperate breach	F4
Their step does not falter their faith does not yield	Q
For yonder supreme o'er the fiercely fought field	Q
Erect in his leonine grandeur they see	J3
The proud and magnificent calmness of LEE	J3
	-
'Tis morn but the night has brought Alice no rest	Q
The roof seems to press like a weight on her breast	Q
And she wanders forth wearily lifting her eye	A
To seek for relief 'neath the calm of the sky	A
	-
The air of the forest is spicy and sweet	Q
And dreamily babbles a brook at her feet	Q
Her children are 'round her and sunshine and flowers	J3
Try vainly to banish the gloom of the hours	J3
With a volume she fain her wild thoughts would assuage	G4
But her vision can trace not a line on the page	G4
And the poet's dear strains once so soft to her ear	J
Have lost all their mystical power to cheer	J
	-
The evening approaches the pressure the woe	V
Grows drearer and heavier yet she must go	V
And stifle between the dead walls as she may	Q
The heart that scarce breathed in the free open day	Q
	-
She reaches the dwelling that serves as her home	H4
A horseman awaits at the entrance the foam	H4
Is flecking the sides of his fast ridden steed	Q
Who pants over worn with exhaustion and speed	Q
And Alice for support to Beverly clings	J3
As the soldier delivers the letter he brings	J3
	-
Her ashy lips move but the words do not come	Y2
And she stands in her whiteness bewildered and dumb	Y2
She turns to the letter with hopeless appeal	H
But her fingers are helpless to loosen the seal	H
She lifts her dim eyes with a look of despair	J
Her hands for a moment are folded in prayer	J
The strength she has sought is vouchsafed in her need	Q
I think I can bear it now Beverly read	Q
	-
The boy with the resolute nerve of a man	F
And a voice which he holds as serene as he can	F
Takes quietly from her the letter and reads	J3
	-
Dear Madam My heart in its sympathy bleeds	J3
For the pain that my tidings must bear you may God	Q
Most tenderly comfort you under His rod	Q
	-
This morning at daybreak a terrible charge	I4
Was made on the enemy's centre such large	I4
And fresh reinforcements were held at his back	S3
He stoutly and stubbornly met the attack	S3
	-
Our cavalry bore themselves splendidly far	J
In front of his line galloped Colonel Dunbar	J
Erect in his stirrups his sword flashing high	A
And the look of a conqueror kindling his eye	A
His silvery voice rang aloft through the roar	J3
Of the musketry poured from the opposite shore	J3
'Remember the Valley remember your wives	J3
And on to your duty boys on with your lives '	-
	-
He turned and he paused as he uttered the call	H
Then reeled in his seat and fell pierced by a ball	H
	-
He lives and he breathes yet the surgeons declare	J
That the balance is trembling 'twixt hope and despair	J
In his blanket he lies on the hospital floor	J3
So calm you might deem all his agony o'er	J
And here as I write on his face I can see	J3
An expression whose radiance is startling to me	J3
His faith is sublime he relinquishes life	V
And craves but one blessing to look on his wife	V
	-
The Chaplain's recital is ended no word	Q
From Alice's white breathless lips has been heard	Q
Till rousing herself from her passionless woe	V
She simply and quietly says I will go	V
	-
There are moments of anguish so deadly so deep	D4
That numbness seems over the senses to creep	D4
With interposition whose timely relief	V
Is an anodyne draught to the madness of grief	V
Such mercy is meted to Alice her eye	A
That sees as it saw not is vacant and dry	A
The billows' wild fury sweeps over her soul	H
And she bends to the rush with a passive control	H
	-
Through the dusk of the night through the glare of the day	Q
She urges unconscious her desolate way	Q
One image is ever her vision before	J3
That blanketed form on the hospital floor	J3
	-
Her journey is ended and yonder she sees	J3
The spot where he lies looming white through the trees	J3
Her torpor dissolves with a shuddering start	Q
And a terrible agony clutches her heart	Q
	-
The Chaplain advances to meet her he draws	J3
Her silently onward no question no pause	J3
Her finger she lays on her lip if she spake	J4
She knows that the spell that upholds her would break	J4
	-
She has strength to go forward they enter the door	J3
And there on the crowded and blood tainted floor	J3
Close wrapped in his blanket lies Douglass his brow	F
Wore never a look so seraphic as now	F
She stretches her arms the dear form to enfold	Q
God help her she shrieks it is silent and cold	Q
	-
	-
	-
	-
X	J3
	-
	-
Break my heart and ease this pain	F
Cease to throb thou tortured brain	F
Let me die since he is slain	F
Slain in battle	H
	-
Blessed brow that loved to rest	Q
Its dear whiteness on my breast	Q
Gory was the grass it prest	Q
Slain in battle	H
	-
Oh that still and stately form	K3
Never more will it be warm	K3
Chilled beneath that iron storm	K3
Slain in battle	H
	-
Not a pillow for his head	Q
Not a hand to smooth his bed	Q
Not one tender parting said	Q
Slain in battle	H
	-
Straightway from that bloody sod	Q
Where the trampling horsemen trod	Q
Lifted to the arms of God	Q
Slain in battle	H
	-
Not my love to come between	F
With its interposing screen	F
Naught of earth to intervene	F
Slain in battle	H
	-
Snatched the purple billows o'er	J
Through the fiendish rage and roar	J3
To the far and peaceful shore	J3
Slain in battle	H
	-
Nunc demitte thus I pray	Q
What else left for me to say	Q
Since my life is reft away	Q
Slain in battle	H
	-
Let me die oh God the dart	Q
Rankles deep within my heart	Q
Hope and joy and peace depart	Q
Slain in battle	H
	-
'Tis thus through her days and her nights of despair	J
Her months of bereavement so bitter to bear	J
That Alice moans ever Ah little they know	V
Who look on that brow still and white as the snow	V
Who watch but in vain for the sigh or the tear	J
That only comes thick when no mortal is near	J
Who whisper How gently she bends to the rod	Q
Because all her heart break is kept for her God	Q
Ah little they know of the tempests that roll	H
Their desolate floods through the depths of her soul	H
	-
Afar in our sunshiny homes on the shore	J3
We heed not how wildly the billows may roar	J3
We smile at our firesides happy and free	J3
While the rich freighted argosy founders at sea	J3
Though wrapped in the weeds of her widowhood pale	H
Though life seems all sunless and dim through the veil	H
That drearily shadows her sorrowful brow	F
Is the cause of her country less dear to her now	F
Does the patriot flame in her heart cease to stir	J
Does she feel that the conflict is over for her	J
Because the red war tide has deluged her o'er	J
Has wreaked its wild wrath and can harm her no more	J3
Does she stand self absorbed on the wreck she has braved	Q
Nor care if her country be lost or be saved	Q
	-
By her pride in the soil that has given her birth	I2
By her tenderest memories garnered on earth	I2
By the legacy blood bought and precious which she	J3
Would leave to her children the right to be free	J3
By the altar where once rose the hymn and the prayer	J
By the home that lies scarred in its solitude there	J
By the pangs she has suffered the ills she has borne	F
By the desolate exile through which she must mourn	F
By the struggles that hallow this fair Southern sod	Q
By the vows she has breathed in the ear of her God	Q
By the blood of the heart that she worshipped the life	V
That enfolded her own by her love as his wife	V
By his death on the battle field gallantly brave	V
By the shadow that ever will wrap her his grave	V
By the faith she reposes oh Father in Thee	J3
She claims that her glorious South MUST be free	J3

Margaret J. Preston

Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

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