THE increasing moonlight drifts across my bed, And on the churchyard by the road, I know It falls as white and noiselessly as snow.... 'T was such a night two weary summers fled; The stars, as now, were waning overhead. Listen! Again the shrill-lipped bugles blow Where the swift currents of the river flow Past Fredericksburg; far off the heavens are red With sudden conflagration: on yon height, Linstock in hand, the gunners hold their breath; A signal-rocket pierces the dense night, Flings its spent stars upon the town beneath: Hark! -- the artillery massing on the right, Hark! -- the black squadrons wheeling down to Death! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 17 by CONRAD AIKEN SHADOW-CASTING by JAMES GALVIN THE MARRIAGE (1) by TIMOTHY LIU A CERTAIN POET ON THE DEBATES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS DRAW THE SWORD, O REPUBLIC by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE DADDY STRAIN by KAREN SWENSON TOWERS OF SIMON RODIA; FOR HOWARD W. SWENSON 1903-1081 by KAREN SWENSON |