Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SHERMAN: 'AN HORATIAN ODE', by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: This was the truest man of men Last Line: Our father sherman's shield. Subject(s): Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) | ||||||||
THIS was the truest man of men, The early-armored citizen, Who had, with most of sight, Most passion for the right; Who first forecasting treason's scope Able to sap the Founders' hope, First to the laic arm Cried ultimate alarm; Who bent upon his guns the while A misconceived and aching smile, And felt, thro' havoc's part, A torment of the heart, Sure, when he cut the moated South From Shiloh to Savannah's mouth, Braved grandly to the end, To conquer like a friend; In whom the Commonwealth withstood Again the Carolinian blood, The beautiful proud line Beneath an evil sign, And taught his foes and doubters still How fatal is a good man's will, That like a sun or sod Thinks not itself, but God! Many the captains of our wrath Sought thus the pious civic path, Knowing in what a land Their destiny was planned, And after, with a forward sense, A simple Roman excellence, Pledge in their spirit bore That war should be no more. Thrice Roman he, who saw the shock (Calm as a weather-wrinkled rock,) Roll in the Georgian fen; And steadfast aye as then In plentitude of old control That asked, secure of his own soul, No pardon and no aid, If clear his way were made, Would have nor seat nor bays, not bring The Caesar in him to be king, But with abstracted ear Rode pleased without a cheer. Now he declines from peace and age, And home, his triple heritage, The last and dearest head Of all our perfect dead, O what if sorrow cannot reach Far in the shallow fords of speech, But leads us silent round The sad Missouri ground, Where on her hero Freedom lays The scroll and blazon of her praise, And bids to him belong Arms trailing, and a song, And broken flags with ruined dyes (Bright once in young and dying eyes), Against the morn to shake For love's familiar sake? The blessed broken flags unfurled Above a healed and happier world! There let them droop, and be His tent of victory; There, in each year's auguster light, Lean in, and loose their red and white, Like apple-blossoms strewn Upon his burial-stone. For nothing more, the ages thro', Can nature or the nation do For him who helped retrieve Our life, as we believe, Save that we also, trooping by In sound yet of his battle-cry, Safeguard with general mind Our pact as brothers kind, And, ever nearer to our star, Adore indeed not what we are, But wise reprovings hold Thankworthier than gold; And bear in faith and rapture such As can eternal issues touch, Whole from the final field, Our father Sherman's shield. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SHERMAN by RICHARD WATSON GILDER THE SONG OF SHERMAN'S ARMY by CHARLES GRAHAM HALPINE SHERMAN'S IN SAVANNAH [DECEMBER 22, 1864] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES CAROLINA [JANUARY, 1865] by HENRY TIMROD ETHIOPIA SALUTING THE COLORS by WALT WHITMAN MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA by HENRY CLAY WORK BEFORE VICKSBURG by GEORGE HENRY BOKER THE FRENZY IN THE WAKE; SHERMAN'S ADVANCE ... CAROLINAS by HERMAN MELVILLE A FRIEND'S SONG FOR SIMOISIUS by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY |
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