False Peace and True THERE is a peace wherein man's mood is tame— There is a peace amidst the shock of arms That satisfies the soul, though all the air Hurtles with horror and is rude with harms; Life's gray gleams into golden deeds, and where, The while swords slept, unrighteousness was done, Wrong takes her death-blow, and from sun to sun That clarion cry My Country! makes men one. (28) RICHARD BURTON. The Reveille [ARK! I hear the tramp of thousands HARK And of armèd men the hum; Lo! a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum— Saying "Come, Freemen, come! Ere your heritage be wasted," said the quick alarming dium "Let me of my heart take counsel: War is not of life the sum; Who shall stay and reap the harvest When the autumn days shall come?" But the drum Echoed "Come! Death shall reap the braver harvest," said the solemn-sounding drum. "But when won the coming battle, What of profit springs therefrom? But the drum Answered, "Come! You must do the sum to prove it," said the Yankee answering drum. "What if, 'mid the cannon's thunder, Whistling shot and bursting bomb, When my brothers fall around me, Should my heart grow cold and numb?” But the drum Answered "Come! Better there in death united than in life a recreant.-Come!' Thus they answered-hoping, fearing, Some in faith and doubting some, Till a trumpet-voice, proclaiming, Then the drum, Lo! was dumb, For the great heart of the nation, throbbing, answered, "Lord, we come!" BRET HARTE. I Song of the Banner at Day-Break HEAR and see not strips of cloth alone, I hear the tramp of armies, I hear the challenging sentry, I hear the jubilant shouts of millions of men, I hear Liberty! I hear the drums beat and the trumpets blowing, I myself move abroad swift-rising flying then, I use the wings of the land-bird and use the wings of the seabird, and look down as from a height, I do not deny the precious results of peace, I see populous cities with wealth incalculable, I see numberless farms, I see the farmers working in their fields or barns, I see mechanics working, I see buildings everywhere founded, going up, or finish'd. I see trains of cars swiftly speeding along railroad tracks drawn by the locomotives, I see the stores, depots, of Boston, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, I see far in the West the immense area of grain, I dwell awhile hovering, I pass to the lumber forests of the North, and again to the Southern plantation, and again to California; Sweeping the whole I see the countless profit, the busy gatherings, earn'd wages, See the Identity formed out of thirty-eight spacious and haughty States (and many more to come), See forts on the shores of harbors, see ships sailing in and out; Then over all (aye! aye!), my little and lengthen'd pennant shaped like a sword, Runs swiftly up indicating war and defiance-and now the halyards have rais'd it, Side of my banner broad and blue, side of my starry banner, Discarding peace over all the sea and land. WALT WHITMAN The National Flag A the flag, but the nation itself. And whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the government, the principles, the truths, the history, that belong to the nation that sets it forth. When the French tricolor rolls out to the wind we see France. When the new-found Italian flag is unfurled, we see resurrected Italy. When the united THOUGHTFUL mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not crosses of St. Andrew and St. George, on a fiery ground, set forth the banner of Old England, we see not the cloth merely; there rises up before the mind the idea of that great monarchy. This nation has a banner, too; and until recently wherever it streamed abroad men saw day-break bursting on their eyes. For until lately the American flag has been a symbol of Liberty, and men rejoiced in it. Not another flag on the globe had such an errand, or went forth upon the sea carrying everywhere, the world around, such hope to the captive and such glorious tidings. The stars upon it were to the pining nations like the bright morning stars of God, and the stripes upon it were beams of morning light. As at early dawn the stars shine forth even while it grows light, and then as the sun advances that light breaks into banks and streaming lines of color, the glowing red and intense white striving together, and ribbing the horizon with bars effulgent, so, on the American flag, stars and beams of many-colored light shine out together. And wherever this flag comes and men behold it they see in its sacred emblazonry no ramping lion and no fierce eagle; no embattled castles or insignia of imperial authority; they see the symbols of light. It is the banner of Dawn. (31) HENRY WARD BEECHER. |