Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/244

 238 Soti I In r a Hi*t<iri<-<il Society Papers.

would linger in the hearts of all present. The following was the poem :

THE BIRTHDAY OF LEE. (By Mary Ashley Townsend.)

What singer's song,

However bravely he might sing, To this proud hour and day could bring Meed justly strong? For chaplet worth the hero's brows,

His spirit's supreme dower, Among the gardens of the earth Where grows the fitting flower ?

No trumpets thrall

The ear with southern battle odes, No tramp of steeds the green turf goads, No bugles call.

Is heard no tramp of armed men, No blades nor bayonets gleam, No sentry guards a tented plain By Rappahannock's stream.

No war flags stir

In old Virginia's mountain breeze, No shot and shell the silence tease, No drums demur! There, nature kind, builds up anew,

Where cannon gored the sod, And scatters flowers to shield the scars Where trampling armies trod.

No camp fires burn

No sunrise gun is heard at morn Where battle raged, now waves the corn Or ploughshares turn. Nature is brave in vain regret

No weed nor blossom lives. That which she never can forget She tenderly forgives!