Classic Poem

Angel and woman, nearing ninety years,
We lay this amaranth flower at her feet, —
The wide world's love, — a tribute richly meet,
For mid the cannons' carnage and the spears'
She moved heroic, and the soul reveres
Her saintly ministrations, heavenly sweet;
Science to love she joined, and did entreat
Death back to life, and checked a million tears.
At Balaklava, through the dreadful camp
Miles long of maimed men, her lot was cast
Through shrieking, bleeding wrecks of sword and b
And in night hospitals, as on she passed,
The wounded blessed our " Lady of the Lamp, "
The dying kissed her shadow on the wall.