Part 4 (1/2)
Thrilling they sound with their glorious tone, Thrilling they go through the marrow and bone!
Brothers, G.o.d grant when this life is o'er, In the life to come that we meet once more!
See the smoke how the lightning is cleaving asunder!
Hark the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their thunder!
From host to host, with kindling sound, The shouting signal circles round, Ay, shout it forth to life or death-- Freer already breathes the breath!
The war is waging, slaughter raging, And heavy through the reeking pall, The iron death-dice fall!
Nearer they close--foes upon foes ”Ready!”--From square to square it goes, Down on the knee they sank, And fire comes sharp from the foremost rank.
Many a man to the earth it sent, Many a gap by the b.a.l.l.s is rent-- O'er the corpse before springs the hinder man, That the line may not fail to the fearless van, To the right, to the left, and around and around, Death whirls in its dance on the b.l.o.o.d.y ground.
G.o.d's sunlight is quenched in the fiery fight, Over the hosts falls a brooding night!
Brothers, G.o.d grant when this life is o'er In the life to come that we meet once more!
The dead men lie bathed in the weltering blood And the living are blent in the slippery flood, And the feet, as they reeling and sliding go, Stumble still on the corpses that sleep below.
”What, Francis!” ”Give Charlotte my last farewell.”
As the dying man murmurs, the thunders swell-- ”I'll give--Oh G.o.d! are their guns so near?
Ho! comrades!--yon volley!--look sharp to the rear!-- I'll give thy Charlotte thy last farewell, Sleep soft! where death thickest descendeth in rain, The friend thou forsakest thy side shall regain!”
Hitherward--thitherward reels the fight, Dark and more darkly day glooms into night-- Brothers, G.o.d grant when this life is o'er In the life to come that we meet once more!
Hark to the hoofs that galloping go!
The adjutant flying,-- The hors.e.m.e.n press hard on the panting foe, Their thunder booms in dying-- Victory!
The terror has seized on the dastards all, And their colors fall!
Victory!
Closed is the brunt of the glorious fight And the day, like a conqueror, bursts on the night, Trumpet and fife swelling choral along, The triumph already sweeps marching in song.
Farewell, fallen brothers, though this life be o'er, There's another, in which we shall meet you once more!
ROUSSEAU.
Monument of our own age's shame, On thy country casting endless blame, Rousseau's grave, how dear thou art to me Calm repose be to thy ashes blest!
In thy life thou vainly sought'st for rest, But at length 'twas here obtained by thee!
When will ancient wounds be covered o'er?
Wise men died in heathen days of yore; Now 'tis lighter--yet they die again.
Socrates was killed by sophists vile, Rousseau meets his death through Christians' wile,-- Rousseau--who would fain make Christians men!
FRIENDs.h.i.+P.
[From ”Letters of Julius to Raphael,” an unpublished Novel.]
Friend!--the Great Ruler, easily content, Needs not the laws it has laborious been The task of small professors to invent; A single wheel impels the whole machine Matter and spirit;--yea, that simple law, Pervading nature, which our Newton saw.
This taught the spheres, slaves to one golden rein, Their radiant labyrinths to weave around Creation's mighty hearts: this made the chain, Which into interwoven systems bound All spirits streaming to the spiritual sun As brooks that ever into ocean run!