Page:The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14.djvu/48

38 Whirl a white tempest through the glen,

And load the pines with snow.

Yet, haply, from the region where,

Waked by an earlier spring than here,

The blossomed wild-plum scents the air,

Ye come in haste and fear.

For there is heard the bugle-blast,

The booming gun, the jarring drum,

And on their chargers, spurring fast,

Armed warriors go and come.

There mighty hosts have pitched the camp

In valleys that were yours till then,

And Earth has shuddered to the tramp

Of half a million men.

In groves where once ye used to sing,

In orchards where ye had your birth,

A thousand glittering axes swing

To smite the trees to earth.

Ye love the fields by ploughman trod;

But there, when sprouts the beechen spray,

The soldier only breaks the sod

To hide the slain away.

Stay, then, beneath our ruder sky;

Heed not the storm-clouds rising black,

Nor yelling winds that with them fly;

Nor let them fright you back,—

Back to the stifling battle-cloud,

To burning towns that blot the day,

And trains of mounting dust that shroud

The armies on their way.

Stay, for a tint of green shall creep

Soon o'er the orchard's grassy floor,

And from its bed the crocus peep

Beside the housewife's door.

Here build, and dread no harsher sound,

To scare you from the sheltering tree,

Than winds that stir the branches round

And murmur of the bee.

And we will pray, that, ere again

The flowers of autumn bloom and die,

Our generals and their strong-armed men

May lay their weapons by.