When Sherman's March was over And June was green and bright, She came among our mountains, A freak of new delight; Provokingly our banner Salutes with Dixie's strain, -- Little rebel from Savannah, Three Colonels in her train. Three bearded Puritan colonels: But O her eyes, her mouth -- Magnolias in their languor And sorcery of the South. High-handed rule of beauty, Are wars for man but vain? Behold, three disenslavers Themselves embrace a chain! But, loveliest invader, Out of Dixie did ye rove By sallies of your raillery To rally us, or move? For under all your merriment There lurked a minor tone; And of havoc we had tidings And a roof-tree overthrown. Ah, nurtured in the trial -- And ripened by the storm, Was your gaiety your courage, And levity its form? O'er your future's darkling waters, O'er your past, a frozen tide, Like the petrel would you skim it, Like the glancing skater glide? But the ravisher has won her Who the wooers three did slight; To his fastness he has borne her By the trail that leads thro' night. With Peace she came, the rainbow, And like a Bow did pass, The balsam-trees exhaling, And tear-drops in the grass. Now laughed the leafage over Her pranks in woodland scene: Hath left us for the revel Deep in Paradise the green? In truth we will believe it Under pines that sigh a balm, Though o'er thy stone be trailing Cypress-moss that drapes the palm. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WAR IS KIND: 21 by STEPHEN CRANE SNAKE by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 82. HOARDED JOY by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ON THE ART OF WRITING by PHILIP AYRES CORSICA by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE ADMIRABLE CONVERSION OF S. PAUL by JOSEPH BEAUMONT |