Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AT FORT PILLOW, by JAMES RYDER RANDALL Poet's Biography First Line: You shudder as you think upon Last Line: And one lone sister's desperate cry! Subject(s): Graves; Southern States; War; Tombs; Tombstones; South (u.s.) | ||||||||
YOU shudder as you think upon The carnage of the grim report, The desolation when we won The inner trenches of the fort. But there are deeds you may not know That scourge the pulses into strife, Dark memories of deathless woe Pointing the bayonet and knife. The house is ashes where I dwelt Beyond the mighty inland sea, The tombstones shattered where I knelt By that old church upon the lee. The prowling fiends who came with fire Camped on the consecrated sod, And trampled in the dust and mire The holy tenement of God! The spot where darling mother sleeps, Beneath the glimpse of yon sad moon, Is crushed, with splintered marble heaps, To stall the horse of some dragoon. And when I ponder that black day, It makes my frantic spirit wince; I marchedwith Longstreetfar away, But have beheld the ravage since. The tears are hot upon my face, When thinking what bleak fate befell The only sister of our race A thing too horrible to tell. They say that ere her senses fled, She, rescued, of her brothers cried, Then feebly bowed her stricken head, Too good to live thusso she died. Two of those brothers heard no plea, With their proud hearts forever still Guy, shrouded by the Tennessee, And Bertram at the Malvern Hill. But I have heard it everywhere, Vibrating like a mystic knell; 'Tis as perpetual as the air And solemn as a funeral bell. By scorched lagoon and murky swamp, My wrath was never in the lurch; I've killed the picket in his camp, And many a pilot on his perch. With steady rifle, sharpened brand, A week ago, upon my steed, With Forrest and his warrior band, I made the hell-hounds writhe and bleed. You should have seen our leader go Upon the battle's burning marge, Swooping, like falcon, on the foe, Heading the gray line's iron charge. All outcasts from our ruined marts, We heard th' undying serpent hiss, And, in the desert of our hearts, The fatal spell of Nemesis. The Southern yell rang loud and high, The moment that we thundered in, Smiting the demons hip and thigh, Cleaving them to the very chin. My right arm bared for fiercer play, The left one held the rein in slack; In all the fury of the fray, I sought the white man, not the black. The dabbled clots of brain and gore Across the swirling sabers ran; To me each brutal visage bore The front of one accurséd man. Throbbing along the frenzied vein, My blood seemed kindled into song The death-dirge of the sacred slain, The slogan of immortal wrong. It glared athwart the dripping glaives It blazed in each avenging eye The thought of desecrated graves And one lone sister's desperate cry! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MYSTIC RIVER by GALWAY KINNELL ENTERING THE SOUTH by LUCILLE CLIFTON SNAPSHOTS OF THE COTTON SOUTH by FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS JULY IN GEORGY by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON O SOUTHLAND! by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON MY SOUTH: 1. ON THE PORCH by DONALD JUSTICE MY SOUTH: 3. ON THE FARM by DONALD JUSTICE JOHN PELHAM by JAMES RYDER RANDALL |
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