| |
| FAIR were our visions! Oh, they were as grand | |
| As ever floated out of faerie land; | |
| Children were we in single faith, | |
| But God-like children, whom nor death | |
| Nor threat nor danger drove from honor’s path, | 5 |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| Proud were our men, as pride of birth could render; | |
| As violets, our women pure and tender; | |
| And when they spoke, their voices did thrill | |
| Until at eve the whip-poor-will, | 10 |
| At morn the mocking-bird, were mute and still, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| And we had graves that covered more of glory | |
| Than ever tracked tradition’s ancient story; | |
| And in our dream we wove the thread | 15 |
| Of principles for which had bled | |
| And suffered long our own immortal dead, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| Though in our land we had both bond and free, | |
| Both were content; and so God let them be;— | 20 |
| ’Till envy coveted our land, | |
| And those fair fields our valor won; | |
| But little recked we, for we still slept on, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| Our sleep grew troubled and our dreams grew wild— | 25 |
| Red meteors flashed across our heaven’s field; | |
| Crimson the moon; between the Twins | |
| Barbed arrows fly, and then begins | |
| Such strife as when disorder’s Chaos reigns, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | 30 |
| |
| Down from her sun-lit heights smiled Liberty | |
| And waved her cap in sign of Victory— | |
| The world approved, and everywhere, | |
| Except where growled the Russian bear, | |
| The good, the brave, the just gave us their prayer | 35 |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| We fancied that a Government was ours— | |
| We challenged place among the world’s great powers; | |
| We talked in sleep of Rank, Commission, | |
| Until so life-like grew our vision | 40 |
| That he who dared to doubt but met derision, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| We looked on high: a banner there was seen, | |
| Whose field was blanched and spotless in its sheen— | |
| Chivalry’s cross its Union bears, | 45 |
| And veterans swearing by their scars | |
| Vowed they would bear it through a hundred wars, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| A hero came amongst us as we slept; | |
| At first he lowly knelt—then rose and wept; | 50 |
| Then gathering up a thousand spears | |
| He swept across the field of Mars; | |
| Then bowed farewell and walked beyond the stars, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| We looked again: another figure still | 55 |
| Gave hope, and nerved each individual will— | |
| Full of grandeur, clothed with power, | |
| Self-poised, erect, he ruled the hour | |
| With stern, majestic sway—of strength a tower, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | 60 |
| |
| As, while great Jove, in bronze, a warder God, | |
| Gazed eastward from the Forum where he stood, | |
| Rome felt herself secure and free, | |
| So, “Richmond’s safe,” we said, while we | |
| Beheld a bronzéd hero—God-like Lee, | 65 |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| As wakes the soldier when the alarum calls— | |
| As wakes the mother when the infant falls— | |
| As starts the traveller when around | |
| His sleeping couch the fire-bells sound— | 70 |
| So woke our nation with a single bound, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
| |
| Woe! woe is me! the startled mother cried— | |
| While we have slept our noble sons have died! | |
| Woe! woe is me! how strange and sad | 75 |
| That all our glorious vision’s fled, | |
| And left us nothing real but the dead, | |
| In the land where we were dreaming. | |
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