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The Young Drummer Boy of Libby Prison
An Incident Related by Capt. James Hussey.
The slumberer wakes! “Are these the walls,
The prison walls around, I see?”
His voice unto his comrades calls,
The sharers of his misery.
“Thou hast been dreaming,” one replied.
He answered;—“Was it then a dream?
I stood beside the river wide,
My native Hudson's noble stream:
My mother dear was with me there,
And in her arms did me embrace;
I gazed upon the prospect fair,
And on her happy, smiling face.
We talked of all our sufferings here,
As if they all were passed and o'er;
I wake to shed the bitter tear,
For I shall see her face no more!”
The prison walls around, I see?”
His voice unto his comrades calls,
The sharers of his misery.
“Thou hast been dreaming,” one replied.
He answered;—“Was it then a dream?
I stood beside the river wide,
My native Hudson's noble stream:
My mother dear was with me there,
And in her arms did me embrace;
I gazed upon the prospect fair,
And on her happy, smiling face.
We talked of all our sufferings here,
As if they all were passed and o'er;
380
For I shall see her face no more!”
A few short hours, and death had broke
The starving captive's galling chain;
To life, immortal life he woke,
That knows no tears, nor death, nor pain.
O dream, which closed his earthly life!
Be thou fulfilled in happier clime,
Where hushed, forever hushed the strife,
Which saddens oft the years of time.
Still visit those, who sink and pine
In prison's gloom, from friends afar;
And o'er the dying prisoner shine,
With radiance bright as evening's star!
The starving captive's galling chain;
To life, immortal life he woke,
That knows no tears, nor death, nor pain.
O dream, which closed his earthly life!
Be thou fulfilled in happier clime,
Where hushed, forever hushed the strife,
Which saddens oft the years of time.
Still visit those, who sink and pine
In prison's gloom, from friends afar;
And o'er the dying prisoner shine,
With radiance bright as evening's star!
Poem No. 566; c. 30 December 1864
| Jones Very : The Complete Poems | |