| |
| MY home is drear and still to-night, | |
| Where Shenandoah, murmuring, flows; | |
| The Blue Ridge towers in the pale moonlight, | |
| And balmily the south-wind blows; | |
| But my fire burns dim, while athwart the wall, | 5 |
| Black as the pines, the shadows fall; | |
| And the only friend within my door | |
| Is the sleeping hound on the moonlit floor. | |
| |
| Roll back, O weary years! and bring | |
| Again the gay and cloudless morn | 10 |
| When every bird was on the wing, | |
| And my blithe summer boys were born! | |
| My Courtney fair, my Philip bold, | |
| With his laughing eyes and his locks of gold,— | |
| No nested bird in the valley wide | 15 |
| Sang as my heart, that eventide. | |
| |
| Our laurels blush when May-winds call; | |
| Our pines shoot high through mellow showers; | |
| So rosy-flushed, so slender-tall, | |
| My boys grew up from childhood’s hours. | 20 |
| Glad in the breeze, the sun, the rain, | |
| They climbed the heights or they roamed the plain; | |
| And found where the fox lay hid at noon, | |
| And the shy fawn drank by the rising moon. | |
| |
| Fleet Storm, look up! you ne’er may hear, | 25 |
| When all the dewy glades are still, | |
| In silver windings, fine and clear, | |
| Their whistle stealing o’er the hill! | |
| And fly to the shade where the wild deer rest, | |
| Ere morn has reddened the mountain’s crest; | 30 |
| Nor sit at their feet, when the chase is o’er, | |
| And the antlers hang by the sunset-door. | |
| |
| What drew our hunters from the hills? | |
| They heard the hostile trumpets blow, | |
| And leapt adown like April rills | 35 |
| When Shenandoah roars below. | |
| One, to the field where the old flag shines, | |
| And one, alas! to the traitor lines! | |
| My tears,—their fond arms round me thrown,— | |
| And the house was hushed on the hillside lone. | 40 |
| |
| But oh! to feel my boys were foes | |
| Was sharper than their sabres’ steel! | |
| In every shifting cloud that rose | |
| I saw their deadly squadrons wheel; | |
| And heard in the waves, as they hurried by, | 45 |
| Their hasty tread when the light was nigh, | |
| And, deep in the wail which the night-winds bore, | |
| Their dying moan when the fight was o’er. | |
| |
| So time went on.—The skies were blue; | |
| Our wheat-fields yellow in the sun; | 50 |
| When down the vale a rider flew: | |
| “Ho! neighbors, Gettysburg is won! | |
| Horse and foot, at the cannon’s mouth | |
| We hurled them back to the hungry South; | |
| The North is safe; and the vile marauder | 55 |
| Curses the hour he crossed the border.” | |
| |
| My boys were there! I nearer prest,— | |
| “And Philip, Courtney, what of them?” | |
| His voice dropped low: “Oh, madam, rest | |
| Falls sweet when battle’s tide we stem. | 60 |
| Your Philip was first of the brave that day | |
| With his colors grasped as in death he lay; | |
| And Courtney—well, I only knew | |
| Not a man was left of his rebel crew.” * * * * * | |
| My home is drear and still to-night | 65 |
| Where Shenandoah, murmuring, flows; | |
| The Blue Ridge towers in the pale moonlight, | |
| And balmily the south-wind blows; | |
| But my fire burns dim, while athwart the wall, | |
| Black as the pines, the shadows fall; | 70 |
| And the only friend within my door | |
| Is the sleeping hound on the moonlit floor. | |
| |
| Yet still in dreams my boys I own; | |
| They chase the deer o’er dewy hills, | |
| Their hair by mountain winds is blown, | 75 |
| Their shout the echoing valley fills. | |
| Wafts from the woodland, spring sunshine, | |
| Come as they open this door of mine, | |
| And I hear them sing by the evening blaze | |
| The songs they sang in the vanished days. | 80 |
| |
| I cannot part their lives and say, | |
| “This was the traitor, this the true”; | |
| God only knows why one should stray, | |
| And one go pure death’s portals through. | |
| They have passed from their mother’s clasp and care; | 85 |
| But my heart ascends in the yearning prayer | |
| That His larger love will the two enfold,— | |
| My Courtney fair and my Philip bold! | |
| |
