 | Poems |  |
THE ANTIETAM STATUE.
Steadfast and sad he stands: his level eyesAsking stern question of eternal Fate.
That silent host of dead before him lies
Whose wondrous, woful loss, no years abate:
Whose legend all the rolling plains relate;
The wind that wails: the unrelenting skies.
“What have these done?” their answering echo cries.
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Gone in a day their gilded destinies.
What evil errand have these swift lives done,
To be so clipt, like insects in the sun,
And this gaunt stone to mark their memories?”
Stone art thou! God, in each true soul replies,
“These men who died for man outlive all earth and skies.”
| Poems | |