Poems for Young Americans from Will Carleton (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ...star in this festal throng to-day. A mighty and brilliant band is here, That none with the eye of flesh may see; They come from their graves both far and near, Their bodies prisoned, their souls set free. Year after year this unseen throng, By death recruited, counts more and more; And louder and louder the battle-song Of heroes that camp on the unseen shore. If they could speak to us all to-day, These words with their greetings would be twined: "Remember us with what love you may, But care for our loved ones left behind. You give us monuments grand and high, You sing to our bravery o'er and o'er, But let us know that we did not die That those we cherished might suffer more " And where are the thousands who bravely waged A losing strife? Whose hearts were true, Though false their cause? Whose souls engaged Their all in the work they had to do? The warrior crudest in the fight, Is tenderest to the fallen foe; The hand that stabs with deadliest might, Would stanch forever the crimson flow. If all of the noblest Southern dead Could march together into this place, With Lee's tall form at the column's head, And Stonewall Jackson's calm, kind face, And each should bear the smile of a friend, As many of those who live have done, No man that is here, but would straight extend The hand of friendship to every one, The war is over; the strife has fled; Love lingers the living ones between; Let all of the brave Confederate dead Be welcomed here as our guests unseen OUR ARMY OF THE DEAD By the edge of the Atlantic, where the waves of Freedom roar, And the breezes of the ocean chant a requiem to the shore, On the nation's Eastern hill-tops, where its cornerstone is laid, On the mountains of New England, where our fathers toiled and prayed, Mid old...