| |
| WHAT, was it a dream? am I all alone | |
| In the dreary night and the drizzling rain? | |
| Hist!—ah, it was only the river’s moan; | |
| They have left me behind with the mangled slain. | |
| |
| Yes, now I remember it all too well! | 5 |
| We met, from the battling ranks apart; | |
| Together our weapons flashed and fell, | |
| And mine was sheathed in his quivering heart. | |
| |
| In the cypress gloom, where the deed was done, | |
| It was all too dark to see his face; | 10 |
| But I heard his death-groans, one by one, | |
| And he holds me still in a cold embrace. | |
| |
| He spoke but once, and I could not hear | |
| The words he said for the cannon’s roar; | |
| But my heart grew cold with a deadly fear,— | 15 |
| O God! I had heard that voice before! | |
| |
| Had heard it before at our mother’s knee, | |
| When we lisped the words of our evening prayer! | |
| My brother! would I had died for thee,— | |
| This burden is more than my soul can bear! | 20 |
| |
| I pressed my lips to his death-cold cheek, | |
| And begged him to show me, by word or sign, | |
| That he knew and forgave me: he could not speak, | |
| But he nestled his poor cold face to mine. | |
| |
| The blood flowed fast from my wounded side, | 25 |
| And then for a while I forgot my pain, | |
| And over the lakelet we seemed to glide | |
| In our little boat, two boys again. | |
| |
| And then, in my dream, we stood alone | |
| On a forest path where the shadows fell; | 30 |
| And I heard again the tremulous tone, | |
| And the tender words of his last farewell. | |
| |
| But that parting was years, long years ago, | |
| He wandered away to a foreign land; | |
| And our dear old mother will never know | 35 |
| That he died to-night by his brother’s hand. * * * * * | |
| The soldiers who buried the dead away | |
| Disturbed not the clasp of that last embrace, | |
| But laid them to sleep till the judgment-day, | |
| Heart folded to heart, and face to face. | 40 |
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