|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PLACIDE BOSSIER, by JAMES RYDER RANDALL Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, friend! In the tender college time
Last Line: The cross on the saint-heart shining!
Subject(s): Death; Soldiers; Southern States; War; Dead, The; South (u.s.)
First Line: Ah, friend! In the tender college time
Last Line: The cross on the saint-heart shining!
Subject(s): Death; Soldiers; Southern States; War; Dead, The; South (u.s.)
AH, friend! in the tender College time
No evil deed could stain thee,
And now 'mid the combat's iron chime,
In purity they've slain thee.
Sans peur et sans reproche to live,
Sans peur the foe defying—
Sans peur et sans reproche we give
Thy epitaph when dying.
When the Southern bullet sang the knell
Of the ravaging invader,
Then—then triumphantly he fell,
Our spotless young Crusader;
With the loud hurrah and the dauntless tramp
Of the charging Creole yeomen,
He fell where the Cherubim encamp,
With his face to the flying foemen.
The blood moon guides its torch of night
Through the smoke envolumed valleys,
And the hillocks tell where the reddest fight
Shook the quick, convulsive rallies;
In the foremost phalanx he shall rest
His head in the dust declining,
The rifle shielding the soldier breast—
The cross on the saint-heart shining!
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