John Pelham
by
James Ryder Randall (1839�1908) |
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JUST as the spring came laughing through the strife,
With all its gorgeous cheer,
In the bright April of
historic life
Fell the great cannoneer.
The
wondrous lulling of a hero's breath
His bleeding country
weeps;
Hushed, in the alabaster arms of Death,
Our
young Marcellus sleeps.
Nobler and grander than the
child of Rome,
Curbing his chariot steeds,
The
knightly scion of a Southern home
Dazzled the land with
deeds.
Gentlest and bravest in the battle-brunt�
The Champion of the Truth�
He bore his banner to the very
front
Of our immortal youth.
A clang of sabres mid
Virginian snow,
The fiery pang of shells,�
And there
's a wail of immemorial woe
In Alabama dells:
The
pennon drops, that led the sacred band
Along the crimson
field;
The meteor blade sinks from the nerveless hand,
Over the spotless shield.
We gazed and gazed upon
that beauteous face,
While, round the lips and eyes,
Couched in their marble slumber, flashed the grace
Of a
divine surprise.
O, mother of a bless�d soul on high,
Thy tears may soon be shed!
Think of thy boy, with
princes of the sky,
Among the Southern dead!
How
must he smile on this dull world beneath,
Fevered with
swift renown�
He, with the martyr's amaranthine wreath,
Twining the victor's crown! |
By James Ryder Randall (1839�1908)
Listed March 3, 2013John Pelham was an artillery officer who served with the
Confederate cavalry under J.E.B. Stuart
during the American
Civil War and was killed in action in
1863.
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