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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SIOUX SONGS: THE BATTLE by AGNES KENDRICK GRAY

First Line: THREE TIMES THE SUN ROSE WHILE THE BATTLE HELD
Last Line: THERE LAY THE SHADOW OF THAT AGONY.
Subject(s): AMERICAN CIVIL WAR; GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN (1863); UNITED STATES - HISTORY; WAR; GETTYSBURG, BATTLE OF;
Three times the sun rose while the battle held,
Three days of blinding-heat and fiery dust --
Three red eternities of breastwork shelled,
Of charge, attack, repulse, and counterthrust.
And in the soul of Meade, the soul of Lee,
By every soldier's suffering torn and wrung --
What vain defeat, what frustrate victory,
As to and fro the battle's fortune swung!
For always on the leader's heart must fall
The sharpest lash, the wounds that cannot heal;
To them is given the wormwood and the gall
Of hurling life against inhuman steel.
And ever in the eyes of Meade and Lee
There lay the shadow of that agony.



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