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Nathan Hale
By Francis Miles Finch (1827 - 1907) |
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To drum-beat and heart-beat,
A soldier marches by:
There is color in his cheek,
There is courage in his eye,
Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat
In a moment he must die.
By starlight and moonlight,
He seeks the Briton's
camp;
He hears the rustling flag,
And the armed
sentry's tramp;
And the starlight and moonlight
His
silent wanderings lamp.
With slow tread and still
tread,
He scans the tented line;
And he counts the
battery guns
By the gaunt and shadowy pine;
And his
slow tread and still tread
Gives no warning sign.
The dark wave, the plumed wave,
It meets his eager
glance;
And it sparkles 'neath the stars,
Like the
glimmer of a lance--
A dark wave, a plumed wave,
On an
emerald expanse.
A sharp clang, a steel clang,
And
terror in the sound!
For the sentry, falcon-eyed,
In
the camp a spy hath found;
With a sharp clang, a steel
clang,
The patriot is bound.
With calm brow,
steady brow,
He listens to his doom;
In his look there
is no fear,
Nor a shadow-trace of gloom;
But with calm
brow and steady brow
He robes him for the tomb.
In
the long night, the still night,
He kneels upon the sod;
And the brutal guards withhold
E'en the solemn Word of
God!
In the long night, the still night,
He walks
where Christ hath trod.
'Neath the blue morn, the
sunny morn,
He dies upon the tree;
And he mourns that
he can lose
But one life for Liberty;
And in the blue
morn, the sunny morn,
His spirit-wings are free.
But his last words, his message-words,
They burn, lest
friendly eye
Should read how proud and calm
A patriot
could die,
With his last words, his dying words,
A
soldier's battle-cry.
From the Fame-leaf and
Angel-leaf,
From monument and urn,
The sad of earth,
the glad of heaven,
His tragic fate shall learn;
And
on Fame-leaf and Angel-leaf
The name of HALE shall burn. |
By
Francis Miles Finch (1827 - 1907)
Listed June 1, 2012 |
| Note: Sept. 22, 1776 -- After the retreat
from Long Island, Washington needed information as to
the British strength. Captain Nathan Hale, a young man
of twenty-one, volunteered to get this. He was taken,
inside the enemy's lines, and hanged as a spy,
regretting that he had but one life to lose for his
country. |
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