SOLDIER'S MORNING SONG.

Go where the bending willow weeps
Over the tomb where ELLSWORTH sleeps,
And softly write

The epitaph that history keeps

In letters white.

Quarry from clouds a shaft to tower
Above the spot where sleeps the flower
Of armies true,

'Till blossoms rise in sun and shower,
Red, white, and blue.

YE

SOLDIER'S MORNING SONG.

Erhebt euch von der Erde.

E sleepers, hear the warning,
Lift up your drowsy heads!

Loud snort the steeds "Good-morning!"

Forsake your grassy

beds.

The sun-lit steel is gleaming,

Undimmed by battle's breath;

Of garlands men are dreaming,
And thinking, too, of death.

33

34

SOLDIER'S MORNING SONG.

Thou gracious God! in kindness
Look down from thy blue tent:
We rushed not forth in blindness,
By Thee to battle sent.
O lift on high before us

Thy truth's all-conquering sign:
The flag of Christ floats o'er us,
The fight, O Lord, is thine!

There yet shall come a morning,
A morning mild and bright;
All good men bless its dawning,
And angels hail the sight.
Soon from her night of sadness
This suffering land shall wake:
O break, thou day of gladness!
Thou day of Freedom break!

Then peals from all the towers!
And peals from every breast!
And peace from stormy hours,
And love and joy and rest!
Then songs of triumph loudly
Shall swell through all the air,
And we'll remember proudly,
We, too, brave blades! were there.

C. T. BROOKS.

THE

AFTER THE BATTLE.

AFTER THE BATTLE.

BY E. L. R.

HE cannon's thunders ceased to swell-
The whistling shot and shrieking shell

No more with vengeful fury sped
Amid the mangled and the dead.

A sullen silence broods around -
For on that dark and bloody ground
The gallant champions of the Free,
Fought, bled, and died for Liberty !

Perchance a brother's fate was sealed,
Upon that solemn battle-field;

And, e'en while in the arms of Death,
A prayer for home his latest breath!

Where raged the fury of the fray

Two warriors,

side by side they lay,

All rent with many a ghastly wound,

Their life-blood bathed the crimson ground.

Fierce foes in life the cannon's roar
Will rouse their bitter ire no more;
They perished in a dread embrace,
With eye to eye, and face to face.

36

AFTER THE BATTLE.

The war-steed wanders o'er the plain,
Seeking amid the heaps of slain

The form of him, whose hand would guide
His courser through the battle-tide.

The chieftain's sword, grasped in his hand,
Still seemed to beckon on his band;

He fell while rose the joyous cry,
The mighty shout of victory.

Close by yon straggling mass of wall,
A youth was seen to reel and fall,
Where fiercest lead and iron rained -
His purple gore his colors stained.

With dying shout he partly rose,
And waved the banner at his foes;
Then strained it to his bloody breast,
Smiled a glad smile and sunk to rest.

O, piteous sight! Yet Freedom gave
A Hero's shroud, a Martyr's grave

To the loved ones, whose blood shall rise
To Heaven, a holy sacrifice.

Their noble deeds of valor done,
A Patriot's name, immortal, won!

A MOTHER WAITING FOR THE NEWS. 37

And on our hearts will e'er remain
The memory of the gallant slain.

A nation's tears will greet the dead,
Whose blood for Freedom's cause was shed;
Her blessings greet the brave, who passed
Safe from the fury of the blast.

A MOTHER WAITING FOR THE NEWS.

BY DAVID M. MENAMIN.

OW wearily the hours pass

HOW

Since, through the ambient air,

The lightnings flashed the startling fact,
A battle has been there,-

There, where my noble, honest boy

The path of fame pursues;
But, ah! my aching heart will burst,
While waiting for the news.

Wounded upon that gory field,
Forsaken he may die;

Nor mother there to wet his lips,

Nor raise his hopes on high;