Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/100

92 Whose cigar must now be near the stump—

While in solicitude his back

Heap slowly to a hump.

Near and more near; till now the flags

Run like a catching flame;

And one flares highest, to peril nighest—

He means to make a name:

Salvos! they give him his fame.

The staff is caught, and next the rush,

And then the leap where death has led;

Flag answered flag along the crest,

And swarms of rebels fled.

But some who gained the envied Alp,

And—eager, ardent, earnest there—

Dropped into Death's wide-open arms,

Quelled on the wing like eagles struck in air—

Forever they slumber young and fair,

The smile upon them as they died;

Their end attained, that end a height:

Life was to these a dream fulfilled,

And death a starry night.