Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/136

124 God! what a threshold they stand upon:
 * The world has passed on while they were buried;

In the glare of the sun they walk alone
 * On the grass-grown track where the crowd has hurried.

Haggard and broken and seared with pain,
 * They seek the remembered friends and places;

Men shuddering turn, and gaze again
 * At the deep-drawn lines on their altered faces.

What do they read on the pallid page?
 * "What is the tale of these woful letters?

A lesson as old as their country's age,
 * Of a love that is stronger than stripes and fetters.

In the blood of the slain some dip their blade,
 * And swear by the stain the foe to follow:

But a deadlier oath might here be made,
 * On the wasted bodies and faces hollow.