Classic Poem

" O SIR , the ring, the ring!
The ring I gave you on that field of death!
I lay half gasping for the sluggish breath
That came and went and stayed so long that I
Thought I should die!
O sir, the ring, the ring! "

The woman fronts me now,
Standing before me with her great grave eyes
Wherein some burnt-out sorrow smouldering lies;
Her lips close pressed to force the thrusting pain
To rest again;
Athwart her lifted brow.

The print of scoffings borne,
With thorn-crown forcing deadly drops; her cheek
A storied page whereon the letters speak
Of tears that burn, and lips that yearn, and life
Seared in the strife
Where love, alas, lies lorn.

" O sir, the ring, the ring! "
Her trembling touch I feel, and lift my hand,
And take therefrom the gleaming beaten band,
And read thereon the letters, " C. E. D. "
And seemeth me
The brooding years out-wing.

Unto Antietam's field;
I tread among the dead; I hear the groans
Of wounded men; I hear the sighs and moans
Of homesick hearts; the plea of famished lips
E'en for a drop that drips
From founts unsealed;

And as we grope our way
With succor for sore hearts, we come to where
Among our fallen comrades, two are there
With heart so close to heart we marvel much
If one fell touch
Of sorrow did not slay;

Full-bearded, one, and brown,
With stalwart limbs and chest upheaved and strong,
We stoop to wake him. Ah, his sleep is long,
That long, long sleep that knows
Nor friends nor foes:
We put his number down.

But this pale lad who turns
A pleading face to meet the pitying eye, —
Ah, little lad, he surely shall not die!
Oh, cheer thee now, thou yet shall see the skies
Where love-light lies,
The hearth where home-light burns!

I kneel and lift his hand —
Poor hand that gives no warm response to mine, —
Poor shattered hand so maiden-fair and fine!
And then the fainting plea: " Please take the ring,
And wear it till I bring
Words you may understand! "

So with the vision gone,
And then, " O woman, what was he to thee?
A brother may be, or a lover? See,
The ring I've worn these years, and in his name
Whose heart aflame
For country led him on! "

" Nay, brother he was not,
Nor lover, to whose thirsting lips you gave
From that canteen you brought to soothe and save!
'Twas I, a woman, whom you blessed that day!
'Twas my love lay
Close by as one forgot.

" Our wedding-day was set,
And happy plans were laid for happy days,
And love went merry in a hundred ways;
When, one strange morning, — I can never tell
How it befell,
Grief stuns me even yet, —

" He came with hurrying pace,
And flushing cheek, and eye a-gleam with pride,
And said, " My darling, my long-promised bride,
Our country now has need of me, I know,
And so I go!"
We stood there face to face,

" And yet I did not speak,
Nor utter a complaint, nor breathe a sigh.
Then came the words, " God bless you, and " Good-bye"!
He who was father, mother, friend in one,
Was gone, and there was none —
Alas for lives so bleak —

" To comfort or to keep.
As one both blind and dumb, I stood apace;
Meseemed that some vast hand had struck my face,
And seized me swiftly in its cruel grasp;
And from its clasp
A thousand fears did leap.

" And rend me with fierce jaws;
And then the sullen stupor come to lay
Its deathly clutch upon me day by day;
And after that, O joy! the dawn of hope
My swooning sense to ope
To Love's most blessed laws.

" To cut my long brown hair,
And idly lounge where idle men were met
To prate of battles won and lost; to let
The mustering sergeant take my age and name
And whence I came;
To lift my hand and swear;

" To doff my borrowed guise,
And don the envied suit of loyal blue;
The while they said: " Poor boy! if he but knew
What woes there wait for those who go to war,
Then were he far
To venture in such wise," —

" Thus sped the spell;
And hope and I are once more face to face,
Though death and danger follow on apace!
The drums play up, the banners dance ahead;
Farewell to dread;
Or life, or death, 'tis well!

" Aye, and I held my own,
And kept my pace beside the best of them,
And bore fatigues as did the rest of them;
Nor shrank when " Forward" was the call to go
Face to face with the foe
Where the long lines were thrown

" When we led the advance
At Antietam there, with the old Ninth Corps,
I marched by his side well up to the fore;
Over the ford at the old stone bridge there,
Up to the ridge there:
And, — it falling by chance, —

" The Twenty-eighth led the van,
And skirmished all night as we lay there, —
As a tiger had fought for his prey there; —
And so when the battle was ended
In victory splendid,
And man called unto man,

" The voice of him, my own,
Made no response unto my bitter cry.
" O love," I said, " thou shalt not surely die!"
But love was fled and troth was dead and he
Came not to me!
Yet love went not alone, —

" The hand that bore the ring,
Symbol of plighted faith and deathless vow,
Lay ruddy with the seal of valor now,
And so it was I said, " I pray thee take,
E'en for Love's sake,
This pledge whence visions spring.

" " Of souls dissevered wide,
Save for the fond allegiance that they owe
To home and country, for whose sake they know
Wounds, prisons, perils upon land and sea;
The grinning mockery
Of smitten hope and pride.

" " The exile from the face
Of wife, home, mother, aye, of all
The holy, happy names that we do call
The things which tell of heavy hearts grown light,
And days made bright
With Love's transforming grace." "

So I gave back the ring;
And saw her sadly, slowly turn away
Into wide streets where deepening shadows lay,
Loveless and lorn to pass wide open hall
Where children call
Who know no sorrowing;

To see the eager twain,
Arm locked in arm, contented go
Into the light and life and warmth and glow;
To hear the voice of laughter, and the sound
Of mirth around;
And yet above her slain.

To hush the love-lorn cry,
And glory in the valor that did go
Up to the cannon's mouth, up to the foe,
And would not for its own a portion take
E'en for Love's sake,
When men were called to die.

So Glory claims her own, —
Or be it on the rueful field of war,
Or by mute hearths where sorrow's ashes are;
Where hearts are light and hearts are leal,
Amid the clash of steel,
Where black-robed women moan!

These the Immortals love!
Theirs is the faith and fortitude that lead
To glorious sacrifice and valiant deed;
Up to the shining citadel of Fame
Where each heroic name
Is writ in blood above!