Page:Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War.djvu/239



In nearness now

He marks the Capitol—a show

Lifted in amplitude, and set

With standards flushed with a glow of Richmond yet;

Trees and green terraces sleep below.

Through the clear air, in sunny light,

The marble dazes—a temple white.

Intrepid soldier! had his blade been drawn

For yon stirred flag, never as now

Bid to the Senate-house had he gone,

But freely, and in pageant borne,

As when brave numbers without number, massed,

Plumed the broad way, and pouring passed—

Bannered, beflowered—between the shores

Of faces, and the dinn'd huzzas,

And balconies kindling at the sabre-flash,

'Mid roar of drums and guns, and cymbal-crash,

While Grant and Sherman shone in blue—

Close of the war and victory's long review.

Yet pride at hand still aidful swelled,

And up the hard ascent he held.

The meeting follows. In his mien

The victor and the vanquished both are seen—

All that he is, and what he late had been.