Classic Poem

I wandered in unquiet mood
Beneath the stars: “Oh, Solitude
And Night,” I murmured, “ye are good!

“The day with ceaseless din is rife;
There is no room in this vexed life
For anything but noise and strife.

“When will the dreadful carnage cease,
And the sweet Sabbath dawn of Peace
Rise on the nation and increase?

“Oh, blessed Freedom! haste the day!
For only 'neath thy perfect sway
These horrors shall be rolled away.”

I looked up to the thronging stars;
Above, the flaming planet, Mars,
Struggled and plunged through cloudy bars.

Great drifts of misty shadow lay
Like spectral ghouls athwart his way,
Sullen and wrathful, cold and gray.

And while I gazed, his fiery light
Grew quenched and dim, then vanished quite;
My soul leaped upward at the sight!

“Thus perish from the earth,” I said,
“Thy baleful influence, carnage-wed
And born of blood, thou planet red!”

Exulting, to the north I turned
Impetuous—for my spirit burned
To see the happy sign confirmed.

There, keeping her inviolate tryst,
Calm, undisturbed by any mist,
Clear-shining as an amethyst,

By no avenging cloud-gnomes driven,
The sacred star to Freedom given
Smiled on me from the tranquil heaven.

And if I took it for a sign,
The pointing of a Hand Divine,
The impulse was not wholly mine.

It calmed me to a better mood;
No more I said, “Oh, Solitude
And Darkness, ye alone are good!”

I blessed the day for what it brought
Of truth and valor, battle-wrought;
The hearts that dared, the hands that fought.

But most I blessed the gracious Power
That guards the issues of the hour
And waits to crown it with His dower;

Peace, born of Freedom! priceless boon!
Sweet keynote to a song shall soon
Set a discordant world in tune!