| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | “Brave comrade, answer!” | | By George Henry Boker (1823–1890) |
| | | BRAVE comrade, answer! When you joined the war, | |
| What left you? “Wife and children, wealth and friends, | |
| A storied home whose ancient roof-tree bends | |
| Above such thoughts as love tells o’er and o’er.” | |
| Had you no pang or struggle? “Yes; I bore | 5 |
| Such pain on parting as at hell’s gate rends | |
| The entering soul, when from its grasp ascends | |
| The last faint virtue which on earth it wore.” | |
| You loved your home, your kindred, children, wife; | |
| You loathed yet plunged into war’s bloody whirl!— | 10 |
| What urged you? “Duty! Something more than life. | |
| That which made Abraham bare the priestly knife, | |
| And Isaac kneel, or that young Hebrew girl | |
| Who sought her father coming from the strife.” | | | | |
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