Page:The Garden of Years.djvu/75

 When the Great Gray Ships Come In

And the great gray ships are silent, and the weary watchers

rest; The black cloud dies in the August skies, and deep in the

golden west

Invisible hands are limning a glory of crimson bars, And far above is the wonder of a myriad wakened stars ! Peace ! As the tidings silence the strenuous cannonade, Peace at last! is the bugle-blast the length of the long

blockade ;

And eyes of vigil weary are lit with the glad release, From ship to ship and from lip to lip it is ' ' Peace ! Thank

God for peace ! ' '

Ah, in the sweet hereafter Columbia still shall show

The sons of these who swept the seas how she bade them

rise and go ;

How, when the stirring summons smote on her children's ear, South and North at the call stood forth, and the whole land

answered "Here! " For the soul of the soldier's story and the heart of the

sailor's song Are all of those who meet their foes as right should meet

with wrong,

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