| |
| SHE leaned her cheek upon her hand, | |
| And looked across the glooming land; | |
| She saw the wood from farm to farm | |
| Touched by the twilight’s ghostly charm; | |
| And heard the owl’s cry sound forlorn | 5 |
| Across the fields of waving corn, | |
| And sighed with sad voice dreamily: | |
| Oriskany! Oriskany! | |
| |
| The moonlight through the open door | |
| Laid its broad square upon the floor; | 10 |
| A beetle plunging through the gloom | |
| Hummed fitfully within the room; | |
| Across the casement’s opening | |
| Night creatures sped on purring wing, | |
| And still she murmured musically | 15 |
| The fatal name, Oriskany. | |
| |
| She raised her face to the dim night skies, | |
| A dream of peace was in her eyes; | |
| Like memory speaking from the dead | |
| Her voice seemed, as she spoke and said: | 20 |
| “’T is two years past this very morn | |
| That he came riding through the corn, | |
| With his gay comrades gallantly, | |
| To wed me in Oriskany. | |
| |
| “At eve the rooms were all alight, | 25 |
| The bride and bridesmaids clad in white, | |
| As we stood side by side apart, | |
| I trembling, but how blest at heart! | |
| The lights, the flowers, the sparkling eyes, | |
| Were sweet to me as paradise; | 30 |
| The vows like music were to me, | |
| That bound us in Oriskany. | |
| |
| “The feast that flowed mid converse fleet, | |
| The music and the dancing feet, | |
| The games that flew from room to room, | 35 |
| The cries, the laughter, and the bloom, | |
| And in the midst, so fair and tall, | |
| My bridegroom, prince among them all,— | |
| ’T was all one glad, sweet dream to me, | |
| That night in gay Oriskany. | 40 |
| |
| “And then the parting groups, the flight, | |
| The voices fading through the night; | |
| The homestead lying dim and lone, | |
| The rooms deserted, lights outblown; | |
| The holy hush wherein befell | 45 |
| The things too wondrous dear to tell— | |
| O sacred fire of love! Ah me— | |
| Oriskany! Oriskany! | |
| |
| “The year went round, there came a guest— | |
| A lovely babe lay on my breast,— | 50 |
| Ah, we were blest! Then came the sound | |
| Of drum and trump the valley round: | |
| ’T was just one year ago this morn | |
| That he went armed across the corn, | |
| In strength of heart and patriot glee, | 55 |
| To meet the foe on Oriskany. | |
| |
| “Below the hill the battle broke; | |
| I heard the din, I saw the smoke; | |
| Road-weary bands paused at the door, | |
| And drank, and onward rode once more; | 60 |
| Poor wounded souls came crawling by | |
| To find some quiet place to die; | |
| My heart beat proud but fearfully | |
| That day in wild Oriskany. | |
| |
| “At eve, amid the drip of rain, | 65 |
| They brought me home my soldier slain! | |
| With calm great looks and quiet tread | |
| They came and laid him on my bed— | |
| As fair as life. A bloodless blow | |
| They said had slain him; but his foe | 70 |
| He stabbed ere dying, through and through— | |
| My brave! His country’s enemy | |
| He smote on red Oriskany! | |
| |
| “My babe died with the dying year; | |
| Two mounds have I in the churchyard near, | 75 |
| But not a loving voice or form | |
| To keep the earth-flame in me warm; | |
| My dead life to the live world clings, | |
| I feel no joy in natural things,— | |
| Strangely has death mistaken me, | 80 |
| Who died on dark Oriskany. | |
| |
| “All day within the homestead dim | |
| I think of him, I dream of him; | |
| My tasks of hands and feet and soul | |
| Lead true to him as to their goal; | 85 |
| In woman’s heart God wrote it thus: | |
| That men should be as gods to us. | |
| I feel the pangs, the weakness see, | |
| Yet worship—in Oriskany. | |
| |
| “I cannot think of him as dead | 90 |
| Upon our one-year’s bridal bed, | |
| Oriskany, Oriskany! | |
| Nor dream of him within the tomb, | |
| Amid the willowed churchyard’s gloom, | |
| Oriskany, Oriskany! | 95 |
| |
| I see him as he passed that morn, | |
| Warm with all life, across the corn: | |
| ’T is thus he shall return to me | |
| At last, far from Oriskany.” | |
| |
