Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BLUE AND THE GRAY (2), by ANONYMOUS First Line: Each thin hand resting on a grave Last Line: Why harry wore the gray Subject(s): American Civil War;holidays;memorial Day;u.s. - History; Declaration Day | ||||||||
EACH thin hand resting on a grave, Her lips apart in prayer, A mother knelt, and left her tears Upon the violets there. O'er many a rood of vale and lawn, Of hill and forest gloom, The reaper Death had revelled in His fearful harvest home. The last unquiet summer shone Upon a fruitless fray; From yonder forest charged the blue -- Down yonder slope the gray. The hush of death was on the scene, And sunset o'er the dead, In that oppressive stillness, A pall of glory spread. I know not, dare not question how I met the ghastly glare Of each upturned and stirless face That shrunk and whitened there. I knew my noble boys had stood Through all that withering day, I knew that Willie wore the blue, That Harry wore the gray. I thought of Willie's clear blue eye, His wavy hair of gold, That clustered on a fearless brow Of purest Saxon mould; Of Harry, with his raven locks And eagle glance of pride; Of how they clasped each other's hand And left their mother's side; How hand in hand they bore my prayers And blessings on the way -- A noble heart beneath the blue, Another 'neath the gray. The dead, with white and folded hands, That hushed our village homes, I've seen laid calmly, tenderly, Within their darkened rooms; But there I saw distorted limbs, And many an eye aglare, In the soft purple twilight of The thunder-smitten air. Along the slope and on the sward In ghastly ranks they lay, And there was blood upon the blue And blood upon the gray. I looked and saw his blood, and his; A swift and vivid dream Of blended years flashed o'er me, when, Like some cold shadow, came A blindness of the eye and brain -- The same that seizes one When men are smitten suddenly Who overstare the sun; And while, blurred with the sudden stroke That swept my soul, I lay, They buried Willie in his blue, And Harry in his gray. The shadows fall upon their graves; They fall upon my heart; And through the twilight of this soul Like dews the tears will start; The starlight comes so silently And lingers where they rest; So hope's revealing starlight sinks And shines within my breast. They ask not there, where yonder heaven Smiles with eternal day, Why Willie wore the loyal blue, Why Harry wore the gray. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...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 FREDERICKSBURG 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 TIS A LITTLE JOURNEY by ANONYMOUS |
|