American poetry; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Poetry
The bosom’s quivering throes,
The shuddering frame, the anguish of the heart
Writhing with Love’s immedicable dart;
The unutterable woes
Of those whom destiny has doomed to feel
The agony they never can reveal--
All these were ours--and when
The dying night-winds ceased a while to wake
Leaf in the wood or ripple on the lake
A murmur rose of pain,
Doleful and bitter as the passing cry
Of a lost spirit in its agony.
Mine is the agony
To perish where Elysian apples grow,
To parch with thirst where Eden’s waters flow
To pine--to droop--to die,
Without one hope to ease my bosom’s pain,
To know _I love, am loved, and all in vain_!
One more fond parting word,
While all my frame with agony is shaken,
And my torn heart of every hope forsaken,
To its far depths is stirred.
A word will haunt me like a funeral knell,
God bless thee, dear Leonora--and farewell!
AT HIS POST.
IN MEMORIAM.
[Midshipman Goldthwaite, Hopkinsville, Ky., who perished with
eleven companions in the battleship Georgia, July 15, 1907.]
Call up, Recording Angel,
The roster of the dead;
Who sleep in vaults or village graves,
Or in the ocean bed.
Call all alike--the wealthy,
The humble or the great;
Tell me how died they, Angel?
How met their various fate?
The Angel called out Marathon,
And Bunker Hill sublime,
Whose glory shall outlast
The temples of old time.
Myriads of true and loyal men
In many a mighty host,
All perished, said the Angel,
Faithfully at their post.
Some to fair science martyrs;
Some to religion’s call;
To truth and duty witnesses,
In faith they perished, all;
And bright, celestial splendor
Shone all around each ghost:
“I died,” proclaimed each pallid shade,
“Faithfully at my post.”
Oh, not in vain you perished,
Goldthwaite, when fate’s sad blow
Struck down the flower of chivalry
And laid its promise low;
Still, with true joy, salute we
Your shade, oh, knightly ghost,
And hail thee, loyal hero,
Who perished at his post.
Thy virtues high in heaven
As stars forever burn;
Long, long shall love bedew with tears
Thy consecrated urn;
In life’s young morn you perished--
Perished, but not in vain;
Your deathless, bright example
Shall cheer young hearts again.
The trumpet voice inspiring sounds
Along the ocean shore;
“Fear God and His commands obey”--
Angels can do no more;
From the ill-fated Georgia’s deck
There booms a solemn roar;
With strength renewed at the sad sound
The country’s eagles soar.
[Illustration: MIDSHIPMAN FAULKNER GOLDTHWAITE]
RECONCILIATION.
[Carriers’ Address, written for the Nashville, Tenn., _Press and
Times_, December 25, 1865.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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