Classic Poem

M AGRUDER was our foemen's name,
They won my seat and youthful fame
And drove me from the public aim;
O how my father, tawny, fierce,
On my swift downfall was a brooder!
As lightning doth a black cloud pierce
He flashed " Farewell, my son — Magruder! "

Betwixt our houses, forked, sleek,
Spread into bays a salty creek,
And rival neighbors still must speak;
My father foxed and rioted,
Took hand and cup with each intruder,
But in his laugh was something dead
At greeting each fair-haired Magruder.

Meantime the law I learned to plead
And in a distant place succeed,
I took a wife of different creed
And my deep temper like a monk
I strove to alter when I wooed her,
Till of the chalice as I drunk
I said " Communion with Magruder! "

My mother fled and sought my side
And sighed unto me as she died
" Dear son! have not thy father's pride! "
In holy ground I had her laid,
The Jesuits would not exclude her, —
Hard poverty came to my aid
And in my cares I lost — Magruder.

High handed was our Irish race;
I won our old colonial place
By tricking of the populace.
In the State Senate, thorough willed,
I led my party like a Tudor
Till came a sound, " Thy father killed
In lust and choler young — Magruder! "

He slew the boy beside his board,
Into his breast he drove a sword,
Because a child they both adored;
Magruder's heart was young and bright,
My sire was gloomier and ruder,
He fled for hoary shame by night
And on his hearth expired Magruder.

The old man died of black despair
Hard by me in a mountain lair, —
A faithful slave hid with him there
And in his garden him interred:
No printer to it was alluder;
The old plantations only heard
That by our name was slain Magruder.

Magruder's race died of chagrin;
They got no justice for their kin.
I grew more humble for our sin
Till came my time when high in station
I leaped, an unknown interluder,
And wrung the withers of the nation
And trembled for the sound — " Magruder. "

I brought a wail from ruined trade
As from the homicidal blade, —
O had Magruder's buried shade
Told but his tale I had been ended,
My furious race's last concluder!
To solemn heights I still ascended
And crossed myself to lay Magruder.

The paroxysm left me long,
But party frenzy, deadly strong,
Lured my old age to human wrong;
I smote the helpless from my height
As in my father's frosty pudeur:
The world cried out in my despite,
But not a raven croaked " Magruder! "

Five years and forty since the crime
Had left me but a wrinkled mime.
To seal that record old with' grime
I wrote my life, I passed it bland
To one who would still be excluder
Of that which would my pandect brand
And on my statue write " Magruder. "

Then in that Jesuit's guarded spot
Wherein my father's grave was not,
I thought his shade would be forgot
That I would be beyond the crowd
My secret knowing no obtruder:
I quit my coffin in my shroud —
The tombstones next me spelled " Magruder . "

There do they stand in pallid white.
They see my spectre every night
And balk my purgatorial flight:
" Justice! " they cry, " thou, Justice Chief!
Thy fame was won as a deluder!
Thy neighbor's life took like a thief
Stands in thy court of death, — Magruder!