THE VALLEY OF DUST AND ASHES
Forth from the house the Mighty Captain passed
Slowly and solemnly before a group
Of earnest blue-clad watchers. Every head
Bowed silently to show him reverence.
But little noting, for a space he paused
And waited the quick bridling of his horse,
His sad eyes gazing towards his distant troops,
His hands together striking, as 'twere pain
And grief commingling racking soul and flesh.
Then mounting Traveler, and answering
With lifted hat the generous salutes,
He rode away to tell the fateful tale
Unto his soldiers biding his return.
When once again he faced his vanquished troops,
A shout of welcome rang through all the ranks.
Then shouting died away and a deep hush
Fell on the host, while every brow was bared
And the Gray thousands wept. And as he rode
Along the lines his soldiers pressed him close
To touch him, to lay hand upon his horse,
To show in some sweet way their sympathy.
Then his great spirit into tumult leaped —
Such tumult as but love in weakness stirs
As it goes reeling down abysmal deeps
When 'twould have scaled the heavens with its own.
Bare-headed, while his face was wet with tears,
With quivering lips he bade his men be strong —
His men, who at his word had bravely dared
The fields of fury and the swaths of death, —
His men, who at his word had nobly gone
With him into the Valley of Dust and Ashes.
Thus rode he past, and into tumult turned
Like to his own thousands of anguished hearts.
As one by one he took their outstreched hands
And with moist eyes gazed on each lifted face,
His soul burst into definite utterance, —
" Men, we have fought together through the war,
And I have done the best I could for you. "
As a great wave advancing towards the shore
Reaches its height, then poising tremblingly
Falls back in one wild crush of spray and foam,
So the emotion of the Mighty Chief
Rising to this high voicing of his heart
For very anguish broke. He could no more.
Forth from the house the Mighty Captain passed
Slowly and solemnly before a group
Of earnest blue-clad watchers. Every head
Bowed silently to show him reverence.
But little noting, for a space he paused
And waited the quick bridling of his horse,
His sad eyes gazing towards his distant troops,
His hands together striking, as 'twere pain
And grief commingling racking soul and flesh.
Then mounting Traveler, and answering
With lifted hat the generous salutes,
He rode away to tell the fateful tale
Unto his soldiers biding his return.
When once again he faced his vanquished troops,
A shout of welcome rang through all the ranks.
Then shouting died away and a deep hush
Fell on the host, while every brow was bared
And the Gray thousands wept. And as he rode
Along the lines his soldiers pressed him close
To touch him, to lay hand upon his horse,
To show in some sweet way their sympathy.
Then his great spirit into tumult leaped —
Such tumult as but love in weakness stirs
As it goes reeling down abysmal deeps
When 'twould have scaled the heavens with its own.
Bare-headed, while his face was wet with tears,
With quivering lips he bade his men be strong —
His men, who at his word had bravely dared
The fields of fury and the swaths of death, —
His men, who at his word had nobly gone
With him into the Valley of Dust and Ashes.
Thus rode he past, and into tumult turned
Like to his own thousands of anguished hearts.
As one by one he took their outstreched hands
And with moist eyes gazed on each lifted face,
His soul burst into definite utterance, —
" Men, we have fought together through the war,
And I have done the best I could for you. "
As a great wave advancing towards the shore
Reaches its height, then poising tremblingly
Falls back in one wild crush of spray and foam,
So the emotion of the Mighty Chief
Rising to this high voicing of his heart
For very anguish broke. He could no more.