Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/222

194 A silent army marches through the night;

The guidons flutter in a golden valley

Where, at the noonday halt, the horsemen dally;

Or, look! a thousand tents gleam through the black;

Or, now, where quick-built camp-fires flame and crack,

From blaze to shade men stretch o'erwearied limbs,

Chant songs, or wake the hills with chorused hymns;

Or, ere the dawn makes pale the starry dark,

The fiery signals, spark on trailing spark,

Write on the silent sky their still command,

While the great army moves, drawn by a single hand.

So long ago it seems, so long ago,

Behold, our sons, grown men since those great days,—

Born since the last clear bugle ceased to blow

Its summons down the valley; since the bays

Shook with the roar of fort and answering fleet,—

Our very children look into our eyes

And find strange records, with a mute surprise;

As they some curious traveler might greet

Who kept far countries in his musing mind,

Beyond the weltering seas, the mountain-walls behind.

And yet it was this land and not another,

Where blazed war's flame and rolled the battle-cloud.

In all this land there was no home where brother,

Father, or son hurried not forth; where bowed

No broken-hearted woman when pale Death

Laid his cold finger on the loved one's breath.

Like to a drama did the scene unroll—

Some dark, majestic drama of the soul,

Wherein all strove as actors, hour by hour,

Yet breathless watched the whole swift, tragic play.

Faithful did each his little part essay,