Poems of Henry Timrod with memoir and portrait | ||
164
ODE
SUNG ON THE OCCASION OF DECORATING THE GRAVES OF THE CONFEDERATE DEAD, AT MAGNOLIA CEMETERY, CHARLESTON, S. C., 1867
I
Sleep sweetly in your humble graves,Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause;
Though yet no marble column craves
The pilgrim here to pause.
II
In seeds of laurel in the earthThe blossom of your fame is blown,
And somewhere, waiting for its birth,
The shaft is in the stone!
III
Meanwhile, behalf the tardy yearsWhich keep in trust your storied tombs,
Behold! your sisters bring their tears,
And these memorial blooms.
IV
Small tributes! but your shades will smileMore proudly on these wreaths to-day,
Than when some cannon-moulded pile
Shall overlook this bay.
165
V
Stoop, angels, hither from the skies!There is no holier spot of ground
Than where defeated valor lies,
By mourning beauty crowned!
Poems of Henry Timrod with memoir and portrait | ||