"I WAS with Grant" -- the stranger said; Said the farmer, "Say no more, But rest thee here at my cottage porch, For thy feet are weary and sore." "I was with Grant" -- the stranger said; Said the farmer, "Nay, no more, -- I prithee sit at my frugal board, And eat of my humble store. "How fares my boy, -- my soldier boy, Of the old Ninth Army Corps? I warrant he bore him gallantly In the smoke and the battle's roar!" "I know him not," said the aged man, "And, as I remarked before, I was with Grant" -- "Nay, nay, I know," Said the farmer, "say no more: "He fell in battle, -- I see, alas! Thou'dst smooth these tidings o'er, -- Nay, speak the truth, whatever it be, Though it rend my bosom's core. "How fell he, -- with his face to the foe, Upholding the flag he bore? Oh, say not that my boy disgraced The uniform that he wore!" "I cannot tell," said the aged man, "And should have remarked before, That I was with Grant, -- in Illinois, -- Some three years before the war." Then the farmer spake him never a word, But beat with his fist full sore That aged man, who had worked for Grant Some three years before the war. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PERSIANS (PERSAE): SALAMIS - MESSENGER by AESCHYLUS SHADOWS ON THE WALL by ALEXANDER (ALEKSANDR) ALEXANDROVICH BLOK DAY AND NIGHT by RUPERT BROOKE THE DIRGE OF WALLACE by THOMAS CAMPBELL ON MISTRESS NEVILLE; TO THE GREEN SICKNESS by THOMAS CAREW SONG AND CRY OF A SOLDIER IN THE LINES by ALBERT EDWARD CLEMENTS |