Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War Part 9

There is a coal-black Angel With a thick Afric lip, And he dwells (like the hunted and harried) In a swamp where the green frogs dip.

But his face is against a City Which is over a bay of the sea, And he breathes with a breath that is blastment, And dooms by a far decree.

By night there is fear in the City, Through the darkness a star soareth on; There's a scream that screams up to the zenith, Then the poise of a meteor lone-- Lighting far the pale f right of the fac es, And downward the coming is seen; Then the rush, and the burst, and the havoc, And wails and shrieks between.

It comes like the thief in the gloaming; It comes, and none may foretell The place of the coming--the glaring; They live in a sleepless spell That wizens, and withers, and whitens; It ages the young, and the bloom Of the maiden is ashes of roses-- The Swamp Angel broods in his gloom.

Swift is his messengers' going, But slowly he saps their halls, As if by delay deluding.

They move from their crumbling walls Farther and farther away; But the Angel sends after and after, By night with the flame of his ray-- By night with the voice of his screaming-- Sends after them, stone by stone, And farther walls fall, farther portals, And weed follows weed through the Town.

Is this the proud City? the scorner Which never would yield the ground?

Which mocked at the coal-black Angel?

The cup of despair goes round.

Vainly she calls upon Michael (The white man's seraph was he), For Michael has fled from his tower To the Angel over the sea.

Who weeps for the woeful City Let him weep for our guilty kind; Who joys at her wild despairing-- Christ, the Forgiver, convert his mind.

The Battle for the Bay.

(August, 1864.)

O mystery of n.o.ble hearts, To whom mysterious seas have been In midnight watches, lonely calm and storm, A stern, sad disciple, And rooted out the false and vain, And chastened them to aptness for Devotion and the deeds of war, And death which smiles and cheers in spite of pain.

Beyond the bar the land-wind dies, The prows becharmed at anchor swim: A summer night; the stars withdrawn look down-- Fair eve of battle grim.

The sentries pace, bonetas glide; Below, the sleeping sailor swing, And it their dreams to quarters spring, Or cheer their flag, or breast a stormy tide.

But drums are beat: _Up anchor all!_ The triple lines steam slowly on; Day breaks, and through the sweep of decks each man Stands coldly by his gun-- As cold as it. But he shall warm-- Warm with the solemn metal there, And all its ordered fury share, In att.i.tude a gladiatorial form.

The Admiral--yielding the the love Which held his life and s.h.i.+p so dear-- Sailed second in the long fleet's midmost line; Yet thwarted all their care: He lashed himself aloft, and shone Star of the fight, with influence sent Throughout the dusk embattlement; And so they neared the strait and walls of stone.

No sprintly fife as in the field, The decks were hushed like fanes in prayer; Behind each man a holy angel stood-- He stood, though none was 'ware.

Out spake the forts on either hand, Back speak the s.h.i.+ps when spoken to, And set their flags in concert true, And _On and in!_ is Farragut's command.

But what delays? 'mid wounds above Dim buoys give hint of death below-- Sea-ambuscades, where evil art had aped Hecla that hides in snow.

The centre-van, entangled, trips; The starboard leader holds straight on: A cheer for the Tec.u.mseh!--nay, Before their eyes the turreted s.h.i.+p goes down!

The fire redoubles, While the fleet Hangs dubious--ere the horror ran-- The Admiral rushes to his rightful place-- Well met! apt hour and man!-- Closes with peril, takes the lead, His action is a stirring call; He strikes his great heart through them all, And is the genius of their daring deed.

The forts are daunted, slack their fire, Confounded by the deadlier aim And rapid broadsides of the speeding fleet, And fierce denouncing flame.

Yet shots from four dark hulls embayed Come raking through the loyal crews, Whom now each dying mate endues With his last look, anguished yet undismayed.

A flowering time to guilt is given, And traitors have their glorying hour; O late, but sure, the righteous Paramount comes-- Palsy is on their power!

So proved it with the rebel keels, The strong-holds past: a.s.sailed, they run; The Selma strikes, and the work is done: The dropping anchor the achievement seals.

But no, she turns--the Tennessee!

The solid Ram of iron and oak, Strong as Evil, and bold as Wrong, though lone-- A pestilence in her smoke.

The flag-s.h.i.+p is her singled mark, The wooden Hartford. Let her come; She challenges the planet of Doom, And naught shall save her--not her iron bark.

_Slip anchor, all! and at her, all!_ _Bear down with rus.h.i.+ng beaks--and_ now!

First the Monongahela struck--and reeled; The Lackawana's prow Next crashed--crashed, but not cras.h.i.+ng; then The Admiral rammed, and rasping nigh Sloped in a broadside, which glanced by: The Monitors battered at her adamant den.

The Chickasaw plunged beneath the stern And pounded there; a huge wrought orb From the Manhattan pierced one wall, but dropped; Others the seas absorb.

Yet stormed on all sides, narrowed in, Hampered and cramped, the bad one fought-- Spat ribald curses from the port Who shutters, jammed, locked up this Man-of-Sin.

No pause or stay. They made a din Like hammers round a boiler forged; Now straining strength tangled itself with strength, Till Hate her will disgorged.

The white flag showed, the fight was won-- Mad shouts went up that shook the Bay; But pale on the scarred fleet's decks there lay A silent man for every silenced gun.

And quiet far below the wave, Where never cheers shall move their sleep, Some who did boldly, n.o.bly earn them, lie-- Charmed children of the deep.

But decks that now are in the seed, And cannon yet within the mine, Shall thrill the deeper, gun and pine, Because of the Tec.u.mseh's glorious deed.

Sheridan at Cedar Creek.

(October, 1864.)

Shoe the steed with silver That bore him to the fray, When he heard the guns at dawning-- Miles away; When he heard them calling, calling-- Mount! nor stay: Quick, or all is lost; They've surprised and stormed the post, They push your routed host-- Gallop! retrieve the day.

House the horse in ermine-- For the foam-flake blew White through the red October; He thundered into view; They cheered him in the looming, Horseman and horse they knew.

The turn of the tide began, The rally of bugles ran, He swung his hat in the van; The electric hoof-spark flew.

Wreathe the steed and lead him-- For the charge he led Touched and turned the cypress Into amaranths for the head Of Philip, king of riders, Who raised them from the dead.

The camp (at dawning lost), By eve, recovered--forced, Rang with laughter of the host At belated Early fled.

Shroud the horse in sable-- For the mounds they heap!

There is firing in the Valley, And yet no strife they keep; It is the parting volley, It is the pathos deep.

There is glory for the brave Who lead, and n.o.blys ave, But no knowledge in the grave Where the nameless followers sleep.

In the Prison Pen.

(1864.)

Listless he eyes the palisades And sentries in the glare; 'Tis barren as a pelican-beach-- But his world is ended there.

Nothing to do; and vacant hands Bring on the idiot-pain; He tries to think--to recollect, But the blur is on his brain.

Around him swarm the plaining ghosts Like those on Virgil's sh.o.r.e-- A wilderness of faces dim, And pale ones gashed and h.o.a.r.

A smiting sun. No shed, no tree; He totters to his lair-- A den that sick hands dug in earth Ere famine wasted there,

Or, dropping in his place, he swoons, Walled in by throngs that press, Till forth from the throngs they bear him dead-- Dead in his meagreness.

The College Colonel.