YES, “Let the tent be struck”: Victorious morning | |
| Through every crevice flashes in a day | |
| Magnificent beyond all earth’s adorning; | |
| The night is over; wherefore should he stay? | |
| And wherefore should our voices choke to say, | 5 |
| “The General has gone forward!” | |
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| Life’s foughten field not once beheld surrender, | |
| But with superb endurance, present, past, | |
| Our pure Commander, lofty, simple, tender, | |
| Through good, through ill, held his high purpose fast, | 10 |
| Wearing his armor spotless,—till at last | |
| Death gave the final “Forward!” | |
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| All hearts grew sudden palsied: Yet what said he, | |
| Thus summoned?—“Let the tent be struck!”— | |
| For when | 15 |
| Did call of duty fail to find him ready | |
| Nobly to do his work in sight of men, | |
| For God’s, and for his country’s sake—and then | |
| To watch, wait, or go forward? | |
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| We will not weep,—we dare not!—Such a story | 20 |
| As his large life writes on the century’s years | |
| Should crowd our bosoms with a flush of glory, | |
| That manhood’s type, supremest that appears | |
| To-day, he shows the ages. Nay, no tears | |
| Because he has gone forward! | 25 |
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| Gone forward?—Whither?—Where the marshalled legions, | |
| Christ’s well-worn soldiers, from their conflicts cease,— | |
| Where Faith’s true Red-Cross Knights repose in regions | |
| Thick studded with the calm white tents of peace,— | |
| Thither, right joyful to accept release, | 30 |
| The General has gone forward! | |
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