Again the glory of the days! Once more the dreamy sunshine fills Noon after noon,—and all the hillsLie soft and dim in autumn haze.
And lovely lie these meadows low In the slant sun—and quiet broods Above the splendor of the woodsAll touched with autumn’s tenderest glow.
The trees stand marshalled, clan by clan, A bannered army, far and near— (Mark how yon fiery maples rearTheir crimson colors in the van!)
Methinks, these ancient haunts among, A fuller life informs the fall— The crows in council sit and call, The quail through stubble leads her young.
The woodcocks whirrs by bush and brake, The partridge plies his cedar-search— (Old Andy says the trout and perchAre larger now, in stream and lake.)
O’re the brown leaves, the forest floor, With nut and acorn scantly strewed, The small red people of the woodAre out to seek their winter store.
To-day they gather, each and all, To take their last of autumn suns— E’en the gray squirrel lithely runsAlong the mossy pasture wall.
By marsh and brook, by copse and hill, To their old quiet haunts repair The feeble things of earth and air,And feed and flutter at their will.
the feet that roved this woodland round, The hands that scared the timid race, Now middle in a mightier chase,Or mould on that great Hunting-Ground
Strange calm and peace!—ah, who could deem, By this still glen, this lone hill-side, How three long summers, in their pride,Have smiled above that awful Dream?—
Have ever woven a braver green, And ever arched a lovelier blue Yet nature, in her every hue,Took color from the dread Unseen.
The haze of Indian Summer seemed Borne from far fields of sulphury breath— A subtile atmosphere of deathWas ever round us as we dreamed.
The horizon’s dim heat-lightning played Like small-arms, still, through nights of drouht, And the low thunder of the southWas dull and distant cannonade.
To us the glory of the gray Had still a stranger, stormier dye, Remember how we watched the skyOf many a waning battle day,
O’er many a field of lass or fame— How Shiloh’s eve to ashes turned, And how Manassas’ sunset burnedIncarnadine of blood and flame.
And how, in thunder, day by day, The hot sky hanging over all, Beneath that sullen, lurid pall,The Week of Battles rolled away!
Give me my legions!—so, in grief, Like him of Rome, our Father cried— (A Nation’s Flower lay down and diedIn yon fell shade!)—ah, hapless chief—
Too late we learned thy star!—o’erta’en, (Of error or of fate o’erharsh,) Like Varus, in the fatal marshWhere skill and valor all were vain!
All vain—Fair Oaks and Seven Pines! A deeper hue than dying Fall May lend, is yours!——yet over allThe mild Virginian autumn shines.
And still a Nation’s Heart o’erhung The iron echoes pealed afar, Along a thousand leagues of warThe battle thunders tossed and flung.
Till, when our fortunes paled the most, And Hope had half forgot to wave, Her banner o’er the wearied brave—A morning saw the traitor host
Rolled back o’er red Potomac’s wave, And the Great River burst his way!— And all on that dear Summer’s DayDay that our fathers died and gave.
Rest in thy calm, Eternal Right! For thee, though levin-scarred and torn, Through flame and death shall still be borneThe Red, the Azure, and the White.
We pass—we sink like summer’s snow— Yet on the might Cause shall move, Though every field a Cannæ prove, And every pass a Roncesvaux.
Though every summer burn anew A battle-summer—though each day We bane a new Aceldama,Or some dry Golgotha re-dew.
And thou, in lonely dream withdrawn! What dost thou, while in tempest dies The long drear Night, and all the skiesAre red with Freedom’s fiery Dawn!
Behold, thy summer days are o’er— Yet dearer, lovelier these that fall Wrapped in red autumn’s flag, than allThe green and glory gone before.
’Twas well to sing by stream and sod, And they there were that loved thy lays— But lo, where, ’neath yon battle-haze,Thy brothers bare the breast of God!
Reck not of waning force nor breath— Some little aid may yet be thine, Some honor to the All-Divine,—To-day, where, by yon River of Death,
His stars on Rosecrans look down— Or, on the morrow, by moat and wall, Once more when the Great AdmiralThunder on traitor fleet and town.
O wearied heart! O darkening eye! (How long to hope and trust untrue!) What in the hurly can ye do?Little, ’tis like—yet we can die.