Classic Poem

Lee saw moreover at the Capital —
Richmond, Virginia's and his heart's beloved —
Confusion rising midst politic lords;
Denunciations of the government,
His own Confederate government and head;
Threats of the Cotton States to break their vows —
Vows of allegiance to Secession sworn —
If hearths and homes had not more sure defense;
The claims of seaports for acknowledgment
Equal to Richmond's; and refusal wide
To yield obedience to the drafts of war
That sabered many a hope and aspiration.
He viewed the passion of Secession wane,
And waning, weaken all the binding cords
Betwixt the people and their Army — his.
He knew intensely that the South was not
As yet a nation, even though her lips
Thundered her purpose cross the flames of war.
Full well he knew if the fierce passion failed
That forced secession, then resistlessly
The wanderers would slip back into the Home
To which, as Lincoln claimed, they still belonged.
And they, because the widowing winds of war
Were blowing off illusion's lowering clouds
About the peaks of reason, wanted less
The sodden fruitage of exploited strife,
And more the orchardings of lasting peace
And golden harvestings of brotherhood.

The Winter raged, and round Lee and his troops
The rains and snows of dreary days and nights
Fell pitiless, while 'mid their trenches bare,
His men in rags, nigh starved, their bodies racked
Upon the wheels of sickness and of pain,
Endured because their Captain lived and moved
Among them, drinking from their bitter cup,
Their hard lot his, their sacrificial life
Accepted as his own. Thus side by side
They suffered, and his comprehending eyes
Beheld their desperate and approaching end.
And after Winter, Spring. The new life rose
From Nature's heart, and through her burgeoning frame,
Responsive verdure, answering birds, glad songs
Of loosened rivulets, the odorous breath
Of winds bloom-saturate, and the deep gleam
Of Old Virginia's skies and fields and woods.
Joy clamored from the subtle throat of Beauty,
And all the air was filled with music, — choirs
That sounded peace on earth, good will to men.

The Mighty Captain saw life's green and gold,
And heard the antiphonal bugles of the Spring.
He sensed through smoke, perceived o'er thundering guns,
And felt with passionate grief the terrible hour, —
Richmond encircled by remorseless foes,
Confederate regiments to leanness come,
Disunion's dowry to a fragment shrunk,
The Southland's ravaged fields, her blighted grain,
Her acres, wasted 'neath embattled feet,
Refusing bread unto her brave defenders.

He viewed the spectacle of ruin pass;
Across the Roanoke Blue legions massed;
Beyond the Carolinas Union hosts
United, irresistible. The gates
Of life were closing under knells of fate.
The strident openings of strange abysms
Rasped the dark edges of his trenches doomed.
Richmond and Petersburg — he saw them falling,
And all the Southland's bannered bastions falling,
And falling, falling, all Secession's hopes.