Lines in Pleasant Places :: :: University of Virginia Library

“The Boy” is dead! The restless heart is stilled—
Its fierce ambition, recklessness, and pride,
And all the sweeter attributes that thrilled
With passion's fervency intensified.

His was no singing-bird's mellifluous note,
Whose cadence soft the heart enchanted heard,
But, trumpet-toned, the ambient air it smote,
And to its deepest depths the spirit stirred.

Even the dulcet strain that love might breathe
—Couched tenderly, in accent soft and low—

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Was warm with smouldering fires that burned beneath,
Hinting of lava and the crater's glow.

His was the song that nerved the patriot's hand,
When war's fell clangor rang o'er earth and main;
He gave himself to his adopted land,
And strove the perilled Union to maintain.

But when the note of strife was haply hushed,
And all the tumult found a glad surcease,
His was the song that with grand fervor gushed,
To welcome in the reign of sovereign Peace.

Old strife ignored, his hand was outward held
To grasp the hand that lately met his own
On battle-fields, by deadliest hate impelled,
Forgetting war when war's fierce blast was blown.

His was the caustic pen that ever sought
To prick the bubble of a vain pretence;
He strove by song, with wit and satire fraught,
To banish wrong and bold incompetence.

But, with a genius free as birds in May,
He'd leave, at times, the touch of meaner things,
And in the ampler ethers soar away
On Poesy's most sublimated wings;

Or strike some tuneful strain, the humble ear
Could hear and treasure from the darling “Boy,”

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The one beloved, who fain life's path would cheer
By strewing along the flowers of hope and joy.

Now, stilled the hand that struck the living lyre!
Dead to all life, all honor, and all pain!
Quenched at its height the intellectual fire!
Fallen to earth the proudly-cherished fane!

But not forgotten—no mere memory
To fade away as lesser ones have flown;
For death, to such, is not to cease to be,
But still to live in deeds as firm as stone.

General Charles Graham Halpine was associated with the author of the above, for the greater part of one year, in the publication of a paper that boasted of more character than patronage. This was in 1852. The association was uninterruptedly pleasant, and the friendship then formed continued till the death of General H. His title of “General” was earned in the war of the rebellion, in which he took a distinguished part. His adoption of the nom de plume of Miles O'Reilly was at the siege of Charleston, where he wrote President Lincoln an amusing letter over this signature. It was impudent in the extreme, and excited considerable curiosity. The letters were continued, and the authorship was discovered, causing some anger in certain high quarters; but he was too much feared to be molested. When he came back to private life, the name came with him, garnished, by himself, with the additional term of “The Boy.”