 | Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne |  |
II.
ELLIOTT IN FORT SUMTER.
And high amongst these chiefs of iron grain,Large-statured natures, souls of Spartan mien,
Superbly brave, inflexibly serene,
Man of the stalwart hope, the sleepless brain,
Well dost thou guard our fortress by the main!
And what, though inch by inch old Sumter falls,
There's not a stone that forms those sacred walls,
But holds a tongue, which shall not speak in vain!
A tongue that tells of such heroic mood,
Such nerved endurance, such immaculate will,
That after times shall hearken and grow still,
With breathless admiration, and on thee
(Whose stern resolve our glorious cause made good).
Confer an antique immortality!
| Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne | |