Page:The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18.djvu/585

1866.] In fiercer rush of hosts again

My dripping sabre seeks the front.

Spur your mad horses! Forward, men!

Meet with your hearts the battle's brunt.

Tricolor, flaunt! And trumpet-blare,

Scream louder than the bursting shell,

And thundering hoofs, that shake the air,

Trembling above that surging hell!

In carbine smoke and cannon flash,

Like avalanches twain, we meet;

One gasp! we spur; one stab! we crash

And trample with the iron feet.

I dream! My tiercepoint smote them through,

My sabre buried to my hand!

And yet unchecked those horsemen flew,

And still I grasp my phantom brand!

Our chargers, which like whirlwinds bore

Us onward, lie all stiff and stark!

Black Midnight's feet wait on the shore,

To bear me—where? Where all is dark.

And still I hear the faint recall!

My senses,—have they dropped asleep?

I see a soldier's funeral pall,

And there my wife and children weep!

Sobs break the air, below the cloud;

And one pure soul, of love and truth,

Is folding in a mortal shroud

Her quivering wings of Hope and Youth.

Ye of the sacred red right hand,

Who count, around our camp-fire light,

Dear names within the shadowy land,

Why do ye whisper mine to-night?

Where am I? Am I? Trumpet notes

Still mingle with a dreamy doubt

Of Where? and Whither? Music floats,

As when camp-lights are going out.

Like saintly eyes resigned to Death,

Like spirit whispers from afar,

The sighing bugle yields its breath,

As if it wooed a dying star.