Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/84

IN WAR TIME 4

Dim and silvery from the east

The infant light of another morn

Over the stirring camps was borne;

But the soldiers pulse had almost ceased,

And there crept upon his brow the change—

Ah, how sudden! alas, how strange!

Yet again his eyelids opened wide,

And his glances moved to either side,

This time with a clear intelligence

Which took all objects in its sense,

A power to comprehend the whole

Of the scene that girded his passing soul.

The father, who saw it, slowly drew

Nearer to her that wept anew,

And gathered her tenderly in his hold,—

As mortals their precious things enfold,

Grasping them late and sure; and Hugh

Gazed on the two a space, and smiled

With the look he wore when a little child,—

A smile of pride and peace, that meant

A free forgiveness, a full content;

Then his clouding sight an instant clung

To the flag whose stars above him hung,

And his blunted senses seemed to hear

The long reveillée sounding near;

But the ringing clarion could not vie

With the richer notes which filled his ear,

Nor the breaking morn with that brighter sky.

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