Classic Poem

In solid grim array,
Like a storm-cloud moist and gray,
They stagger on their march across the plain
Through the never-ending zone
Where the iron dice are thrown:
A stealthy backward glance who can restrain?
Hearts almost beat aloud,
When before the pale-faced crowd
The Major sharply gallops to the front.
HALT !
The ranks respond to the abrupt command.
Silent and motionless the regiments stand.

What is that in the dawning glow
Glimmering over the height?
Do the enemy's standards show?
Yes, they are well in sight.
God be with you, wife and child!
Do they sing as they come?
Hark to the scream of their piping wild
And the rolling of the drum!
A burst of barbaric, melodious tone:
It curdles the marrow and shivers the bone!
God keep you, comrades, in His love
Till we meet again in the world above!
Lightning flashes seem to glare,
Crashing thunders split the air.
Eyelids quiver 'neath the blast,
Watchwords through the host are passed.
Be it so! The watchwords tell;
Bolder now our bosoms swell.
Death stalks abroad: an iron hail
Pours through the murky sulphur veil.

In grim embrace the hosts are locked.
" Ready " 's the word; the guns are cocked.
Kneeling the foremost rank
Fires; some fall to rise no more.
Volleys of grape in torrents pour,
Yet filled is every blank.
Death right and left and all around:
Whole regiments welter on the ground.
The sun goes down, yet still they fight,
And over the army descends the night.
God keep you, comrades, in His love
Till we meet again in the world above!

The living mingle with the dead,
On corpses falls the stumbling tread,
And spouting streams of blood descend.
— " What, Frank, thou there? My Charlotte greet, good friend! "
(Wilder the tide of battle rolled.)
" I will! " But, oh my lads, behold!
The grape is bursting in our rear!
" Thy Charlotte I will greet, friend; have no fear!
Repose in peace! Where most the bullets fly,
Forlorn and friendless, comrade, there stand I. "
Hither, thither sways the fight,
Dark over the army broods the night.
God keep you, comrades, in His love
Till we meet again in the world above!

Ha! what was that went crashing by?
In every direction the gallopers fly.
The dragoons are right in the thick of the foe,
And his murderous thunders feebler grow.
Comrades, 'tis Victory!
Their craven limbs in terror quail,
And in the dust his standards trail.

Decided is the bloody fight;
Victorious day dispels the night!
The rolling drums, the fifers shrill
The air with strains of triumph fill!
Farewell, dear comrades, who linger here:
We shall meet again in another sphere!