Little Giffen
By Francis Orray Ticknor (1822-1874) |
 |
|
Out of the focal
and foremost fire,
Out of the hospital walls as dire,
Smitten of grape-shot and grangrene,
(Eighteenth battle,
and he sixteen!)
Spectre! Such as you seldom see,
Little Giffen, of Tennessee.
"Take him- and welcome!" the
surgeons said;
"Little the doctor can help the dead!"
So we took him and brought him where
The balm was sweet
in the summer air;
And we laid him down on a wholesome
bed-
Utter Lazarus, heel to head!
And we watched
the war with abated breath-
Skeleton boy against skeleton
death.
Months of torture, how many such!
Weary weeks
of the stick and crutch;
And still a glint of the
steel-blue eye
Told of a spirit that wouldn't die.
And didn't. Nay, more! In death's despite
The
crippled skeleton learned to write.
"Dear Mother," at
first, of course; and then
"Dear Captain," inquiring
about the men.
Captain's answer: "Of eighty-and-five,
Giffen and I are left alive."
Word of gloom from the
war, one day;
"Johnston pressed at the front, they say."
Little Giffen was up and away;
A tear-his first-as he
bade good-by,
Dimmed the glint of his steel-blue eye.
"I'll write, if spared!" There was news of the fight;
But
none of Giffen. He did not write.
I sometimes fancy
that, were I king
Of the princely knights of the Golden
Ring,
With the song of the minstrel in mine ear,
And
the tender legend that trembles here,
I'd give the best
on his bended knee,
The whitest soul of my chivalry,
For Little Giffen, of Tennessee. |
By
Francis Orray Ticknor (1822-1874)
Listed March 26, 2013
This poem is a true story about
16 year old Isaac Newton Giffen,
who sadly was killed in one of
the last battles of the Civil War
after
a long
recovery from a nearly mortal wound during an earlier
battle.
|
Poem Use Permission Request
USA Patriotism! cannot
provide use permission for a poem or an author's email address
if not listed below the poem. Only the author or a legal
representative can grant permission. Try a search engine to find the
author's contact information for a use permission request or if
it is available for public use.
Note: Poems authored in the
1700s and 1800s can be used with reference to the author. |
Comment on this poem |
|
| | |
|
| War and Tragedy Poems | Poem Categories |
|
