Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Southern States: Fredericksburg, Va. | | Fredericksburg | | Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) |
| | | THE INCREASING moonlight drifts across my bed, | |
| And on the churchyard by the road, I know | |
| It falls as white and noiselessly as snow. | |
| ’T was such a night two weary summers fled; | |
| The stars, as now, were waning overhead. | 5 |
| Listen! Again the shrill-lipped bugles blow | |
| Where the swift currents of the river flow | |
| Past Fredericksburg: far off the heavens are red | |
| With sudden conflagration: on yon height, | |
| Linstock in hand, the gunners hold their breath: | 10 |
| A signal-rocket pierces the dense night, | |
| Flings its spent stars upon the town beneath: | |
| Hark!—the artillery massing on the right, | |
| Hark!—the black squadrons wheeling down to Death! | | | | |
|
|
