Dur Privilege. NOT ours, where battle smoke upcurls, To meet the charge that treason hurls Not ours to guide the fatal scythe The long grass dimples on the hill, O brothers by the farther sea! Think still our faith is warm ; The same bright flag above us waves The same red blood that dyes your fields The blood that flowed when Lander fell, And thus apart our hearts keep time And Mercy's ringing gold shall chime Relieving Guard. T. S. K. OBIIT MARCH 4, 1864. CAME the relief. "What, sentry, ho! How passed the night through thy long waking ?" "Cold, cheerless, dark,-as may befit The hour before the dawn is breaking." "No sight? no sound?" "No; nothing save The plover from the marches calling, And in yon western sky, about An hour ago, a star was falling." "A star? There's nothing strange in that." "No, nothing; but, above the thicket, Somehow it seemed to me that God Somewhere had just relieved a picket." The Goddess. FOR THE SANITARY FAIR. "WHO Comes?" The sentry's warning cry A woman, by those graceful folds; 66 "My name? Her name, in ancient song Who fearless from Olympus came : Look on me! Mortals know me best In battle and in flame." "Enough! I know that clarion voice; I know that gleaming eye and helm; Those crimson lips,-and in their dew The best blood of the realm. "The young, the brave, the good and wise, Have fallen in thy curst embrace: The juices of the grapes of wrath Still stain thy guilty face. "My brother lies in yonder field, Face downward to the quiet grass: Go back! he cannot see thee now; But here thou shalt not pass." A crack upon the evening air, The sentry with his brother lies No lance or warlike shield it bears: Can this be she of haughty mien, The goddess of the sword and shield? Ah, yes! The Grecian poet's myth Sways still each battlefield. For not alone that rugged War Some grace or charm from Beauty gains; But, when the goddess' work is done, The woman's still remains. On a Pen of Thomas Starr King. THIS is the reed the dead musician dropped, Its melodies unbidden. But who shall finish the unfinished strain, His pen! what humbler memories cling about Its golden curves! what shapes and laughing graces Slipped from its point, when his full heart went out In smiles and courtly phrases? The truth, half jesting, half in earnest flung; But all in vain the enchanter's wand we wave: No stroke of ours recalls his magic vision: The incantation that its power gave Sleeps with the dead magician. |