THE HALLOWED STAR OF GOLD by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER

'Twas a little gray house by an old country road
That attracted my notice to-day,
For there hung in a window a banner, which showed
A contrast most marked to its gray.

There was one golden star on a centred white field,
With a border, blood-red, as a frame,
But oh! how it thrilled as its presence revealed
A glory so worthy of fame.

Like Jupiter's gleams at the first kiss of Night
It glowed in my vision, and left
In the deep of my soul the gold of its light
To give to the hearts now bereft.

And I saw in its beams, not the death typified,
But, rather, the Hope of all hopes,
The vision of Life across the Divide,
And the Door that true sacrifice opes.

As the lightning reveals ere the dull thunders grind,
I glimpsed in a land far away
The brave, stalwart men who were marching behind
The Stars and the Stripes to the fray.

And I singled from out the thousands who fought
The lad for whom gold was displayed,
And I noted a smile on his lips, and I caught
A glance of his eyes, unafraid.

There, I saw him enthused with the purpose of Right
And the love of his Country's ideal,
Go leaping to death in the thick of the fight,
Forgetting himself in his zeal.

My vision was brief, but I saw him go down,
Yet not in the throes of defeat,
For I knew that such death but betokened a crown
And a place in God's holy retreat.

Then that single starred flag in the house by the road
Seemed hallowed and sacred to me,
And oh! how the gold on its white bosom glowed
As it whispered this message to me.

No, they are not dead, those who fall in the Cause
That glorifies Strife, for they live
In the Land of the Leal where the Infinite draws
To Himself the life that He gives.

Then my soul breathed the words that my lips left unsaid,
"O, God, burn this gold in my heart,
And give me to teach in my song, and to spread
The voice of this star through my art."

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