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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FREDERICKSBURG, by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH Poet's Biography
First Line: The increasing moonlight drifts across my bed
Last Line: Hark! -- the black squadrons wheeling down to death!
Subject(s): American Civil War; Fredericksburg, Battle Of (1862); Holidays; Memorial Day; United States - History; Declaration Day
First Line: The increasing moonlight drifts across my bed
Last Line: Hark! -- the black squadrons wheeling down to death!
Subject(s): American Civil War; Fredericksburg, Battle Of (1862); Holidays; Memorial Day; United States - History; Declaration Day
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!
Other Poems of Interest...
THE DAY OF THE DEAD SOLDIERS; MARY 30, 1869 by EMMA LAZARUS
MEMORIAL DAY by JOSEPHINE MILES
MEMORIAL DAY FOR THE WAR DEAD by YEHUDA AMICHAI
MEMORIAL DAY by MICHAEL ANANIA
AN ODE ON THE UNVEILING OF THE SHAW MEMORIA BOSTON COMMON, MAY 31, 1897 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
THE DEATH OF GRANT by AMBROSE BIERCE
MEMORIAL DAY by WILLIAM E. BROOKS
VANQUISHED; ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT by FRANCIS FISHER BROWNE
THE DEATH OF SLAVERY by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT