Page:All quiet along the Potomac and other poems.djvu/189

 COURAGEOUS FEAR. 183

With trust of the fearless,

With joy of the tearless, With faith by the traitor untried,

They clamored and crowded,

And slowly unshrouded, To fight for the guerdon denied :

&quot;Shall we be belated ?

The birds have all mated, For Robin the tale told to-day ;

Gay sunshine is calling,

The tender dew falling ; Then why should a flower-bulb stay ?

&quot;Mother Earth can t compel us

To stay, though she tell us Of north wind, and ice on the lawn ;

She has grown grim and older,

Her feelings are colder, Her youthful vivacity gone.&quot;

They were up in the border,

The gay ranks in order, When, lo ! came the Northman, Jack Frost;

He chanced to remember

A sunny December,

So made up the time he had lost.

Then the corps so defying Fell blasted and dying, All struck by the terrible spear ;

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