Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (18381915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912. |
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Henry Timrod. 18291867 |
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171. Ode |
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[Sung on the occasion of decorating the graves of the Confederate dead at Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S. C., 1867.] |
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SLEEP sweetly in your humble graves, | |
Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause; | |
Though yet no marble column craves | |
The pilgrim here to pause. | |
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In seeds of laurel in the earth | 5 |
The blossom of your fame is blown, | |
And somewhere, waiting for its birth, | |
The shaft is in the stone! | |
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Meanwhile, behalf the tardy years | |
Which keep in trust your storied tombs, | 10 |
Behold! your sisters bring their tears, | |
And these memorial blooms. | |
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Small tributes! but your shades will smile | |
More proudly on these wreaths to-day, | |
Than when some cannon-moulded pile | 15 |
Shall overlook this bay. | |
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Stoop, angels, hither from the skies! | |
There is no holier spot of ground | |
Than where defeated valor lies, | |
By mourning beauty crowned! | 20 |
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