Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, The sign of hope and triumph high, When speaks the signal trumpet-tone, And the long line comes gleaming on; Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, Has dimm'd the glistening bayonet, Each soldier eye shall brightly turn To where thy sky-born glories burn, And as his springing steps advance Catch war and vengeance from the glance. And when the cannon-mouthings loud Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud, And gory sabres rise and fall
Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall sink beneath Each gallant arm that strikes below That lovely messenger of death.
Flag of the seas! on ocean wave Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave; When death, careering on the gale, Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, And frighted waves rush wildly back Before the broadside's reeling rack, Each dying wanderer of the sea
Shall look at once to heaven and thee, And smile to see thy splendors fly In triumph o'er his closing eye.
Flag of the free heart's hope and home! By angel hands to valvor given; Thy stars have lit the welkin dome,
And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet!
Where breathes the foe that falls before us, With freedom's soil beneath our feet, And freedom's banner streaming o'er us? JOSEPH RODMan Drake.
THE fallen cause still waits,
Its bard has not come yet;
His song-through one of to-morrow's gates Shall shine-but never set.
But when he comes, he'll sweep
A harp with tears all stringed,
And the very notes he strikes will weep, As they come, from his hand, woe-winged.
Ah! grand shall be his strain,
And his songs shall fill all climes, And the Rebels shall rise and march again Down the lines of his glorious rhymes.
Be freedom and science and virtue thy fame.
To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire; Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire; Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend, And triumph pursue them, and glory attend. A world is thy realm; for a world be thy laws Enlarged as thine empire, and just as thy cause; On Freedom's broad basis that empire shall rise, Extend with the main, and dissolve with the skies.
Fair Science her gates to thy sons shall unbar, And the East see thy morn hide the beams of her star;
New bards and new sages unrivalled shall soar To fame unextinguished when time is no more;
To thee, the last refuge of virtue designed, Shall fly from all nations the best of mankind; Here, grateful to Heaven, with transport shall bring
Their incense, more fragrant than odors of spring.
Nor less shall thy fair ones to glory ascend, And genius and beauty in harmony blend; The graces of form shall awake pure desire, And the charms of the soul ever cherish the fire; Their sweetness unmingled, their manners refined, And virtue's bright image, enstamped on the mind, With peace and soft rapture shall teach life to glow,
And light up a smile on the aspect of woe.
Thy fleets to all regions thy power shall display, The nations admire, and the ocean obey; Each shore to thy glory its tribute unfold,
And the East and the South yield their spices and gold.
As the dayspring unbounded thy splendor shall flow,
And earth's little kingdoms before thee shall bow, While the ensigns of union, in triumph unfurled, Hush the tumult of war, and give peace to the world.
Thus, as down a lone valley, with cedars o'erspread,
From war's dread confusion, I pensively strayed,- The gloom from the face of fair heaven retired; The wind ceased to murmur, the thunders expired; Perfumes, as of Eden, flowed sweetly along, And a voice, as of angels, enchantingly sung: "Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies!" TIMOTHY DWIGHT.
PEACE in the clover-scented air, And stars within the dome; And underneath, in dim repose,
A plain, New England home. Within, a murmur of low tones
And sighs from hearts oppressed, Merging in prayer, at last, that brings The balm of silent rest.
I've closed a hard day's work, Marty,- The evening chores are done; And you are weary with the house, And with the little one.
But he is sleeping sweetly now, With all our pretty brood; So come and sit upon my knee, And it will do me good.
Oh, Marty! I must tell you all
The trouble in my heart, And you must do the best you can To take and bear your part. You've seen the shadow on my face; You've felt it day and night; For it has filled our little home, And banished all its light.
I did not mean it should be so, And yet I might have known That hearts which live as close as ours Can never keep their own. But we are fallen on evil times, And, do what'er I may, My heart grows sad about the war, And sadder every day.
I think about it when I work, And when I try to rest,
And never more than when your head Is pillowed on my breast;
For then I see the camp-fires blaze, And sleeping men around, Who turn their faces toward their homes, And dream upon the ground.
I think about the dear, brave boys, My mates in other years,
Who pine for home and those they love,
Till I am choked with tears.
With shouts and cheers they marched away
On glory's shining track,
But, ah! how long, how long they stay!
How few of them come back!
One sleeps beside the Tennessee, And one beside the James, And one fought on a gallant ship
And perished in its flames.
And some, struck down by fell disease, Are breathing out their life; And others, maimed by cruel wounds, Have left the deadly strife.
Ah, Marty! Marty! only think Of all the boys have done And suffered in this weary war! Brave heroes, every one! Oh, often, often in the night I heard their voices call: "Come on and help us! Is it right That we should bear it all?"
The sun's bright lances rout the mists Of morning, and, by George! Here's Longstreet, struggling in the lists, Hemmed in an ugly gorge.
Pope and his Dutchmen, whipped before; "Bay'nets and grape!" hear Stonewall roar; "Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby's score!" In "Stonewall Jackson's way."
Ah! maiden, wait and watch and yearn For news of Stonewall's band! Ah! widow, read, with eyes that burn, That ring upon thy hand.
Ah! wife, sew on, pray on, hope on; Thy life shall not be all forlorn; The foe had better ne'er been born That gets in " Stonewall's way."
OUR good steeds snuff the evening air, Our pulses with their purpose tingle; The foeman's fires are twinkling there; He leaps to hear our sabres jingle!
Each carbine sends its whizzing ball: Now, cling! clang! forward all,
Dash on beneath the smoking dome:
Through level lightnings gallop nearer! One look to Heaven! No thoughts of home: The guidons that we bear are dearer. CHARGE!
Cling! clang! forward all!
Heaven help those whose horses fall! Cut left and right!
They flee before our fierce attack!
They fall! they spread in broken surges! Now, comrades, bear our wounded back, And leave the foeman to his dirges. WHEEL!
The bugles sound the swift recall: Cling! clang! backward all!
Home, and good-night!
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN.
LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in 'Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,— One, if by land, and two, if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm.
Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where, swinging wide at her moorings, lay The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar, And a huge black hulk, that was magnified By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, Wanders and watches with eager ears, Till in the silence round him he hears The muster of men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the grenadiers, Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, To the belfry-chamber overhead, And startled the pigeons from their perch On the sombre rafters, that round him made Masses and moving shapes of shade,— By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in the wall, Where he paused to listen and look down A moment on the roofs of the town, And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, In their night-encampment on the hill, Wrapped in silence so deep and still That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, The watchful night-wind, as it went Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!" A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead; For suddenly all his thoughts are bent On a shadowy something far away, Where the river widens to meet the bay,- A line of black that blends and floats On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride, On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. Now he patted his horse's side,
Now gazed at the landscape far and near, Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, And turned and tightened his saddle-girth; But mostly he watched with eager search The belfry-tower of the Old North Church, As it rose above the graves on the hill, Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height A glimmer, and then a gleam of light! He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns!
A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet: That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep, And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep, Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides; And under the alders, that skirt its edge, Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge, Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. He heard the crowing of the cock, And the barking of the farmer's dog, And felt the damp of the river fog, That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock When he galloped into Lexington. He saw the gilded wethercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock
When he came to the bridge in Concord town. He heard the bleating of the flock, And the twitter of birds among the trees, And felt the breath of the morning breeze Blowing over the meadows brown. And one was safe and asleep in his bed Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket-ball.
You know the rest. In books you have read, How the British Regulars fired and fled,- How the farmers gave them ball for ball, From behind each fence and farm-yard wall, Chasing the redcoats down the lane, Then crossing the fields to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of the road, And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere; And so through the night went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm,— A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo forevermore! For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.
THE army is gathering from near and from far; The trumpet is sounding the call for the war; McClellan's our leader, he's gallant and strong; We'll gird on our armor and be marching along.
Marching along, we are marching along, Gird on the armor and be marching along; McClellan's our leader, he's gallant and strong; For God and our country we are marching along.
The foe is before us in battle array,
But let us not waver, or turn from the way;
The Lord is our strength, and the Union's our
With courage and faith we are marching along.
Chorus.-Marching along, etc.
Our wives and our children we leave in your care; We feel you will help them with sorrow to bear; 'Tis hard thus to part, but we hope 'twon't be long; We'll keep up our hearts as we're marching along.
Chorus.-Marching along, etc.
We sigh for our country, we mourn for our dead; For them now our last drop of blood we will shed; Our cause is the right one-our foe's in the wrong; Then gladly we'll sing as we're marching along.
Chorus.-Marching along, etc.
The flag of our country is floating on high; We'll stand by that flag till we conquer or die; McClellan's our leader, he's gallant and strong; We'll gird on our armor and be marching along.
Chorus.-Marching along, etc.
"THE WOMEN WHO WENT TO THE FIELD."
THE women who went to the field, you say, The women who went to the field; and pray What did they go for?-just to be in the way? They'd not know the difference betwixt work and play.
And what did they know about war, anyway? What could they do?-of what use could they be? They would scream at the sight of a gun, don't you see?
Just fancy them round where the bugle-notes play, And the long roll is bidding us on to the fray.
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