"WHO'VE ye got there?" -- "Only a dying brother, Hurt in the front just now." "Good boy! he'll do. Somebody tell his mother Where he was killed, and how." "Whom have you there?" -- "A crippled courier, Major, Shot by mistake, we hear. He was with Stonewall." "Cruel work they've made here; Quick with him to the rear!" "Well, who comes next?" -- "Doctor, speak low, speak low, sir; Don't let the men find out! It's Stonewall!" -- "God!" -- "The brigade must not know, sir, While there's a foe about!" Whom have we here -- shrouded in martial manner, Crowned with a martyr's charm? A grand dead hero, in a living banner, Born of his heart and arm: The heart whereon his cause hung -- see how clingeth That banner to his bier! The arm wherewith his cause struck -- hark! how ringeth His trumpet in their rear! What have we left? His glorious inspiration, His prayers in council met. Living, he laid the first stones of a nation; And dead, he builds it yet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DEIL'S AWA WI' TH' EXCISEMAN by ROBERT BURNS ON COMMUNISTS; EPIGRAM by EBENEZER ELLIOTT IPHIGENEIA AND AGAMEMNON, FR. THE HELLENICS by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR CELIA'S HOMECOMING by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON WITH COLORS GAY by HOWARD S. ABBOTT INSCRIPTIONS: 2. FOR A STATUE OF CHAUCER AT WOODSTOCK by MARK AKENSIDE THE STORY OF ZERBIN AND ISABELLA, FR. ORLANDO FURIOSO by LUDOVICO (LODOVICO) ARIOSTO |