Twilight On Sumter
By Richard Henry Stoddard (1825
- 1903) |
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Still and dark along the
sea
Sumter lay;
A light was overhead,
As from
burning cities shed,
And the clouds were battle-red,
Far away.
Not a solitary gun
Left to tell the fort had
won,
Or lost the day!
Nothing but the tattered rag
Of the drooping Rebel flag,
And the sea-birds screaming
round it in their play.
How it woke one April morn,
Fame shall tell;
As from Moultrie, close at hand,
And
the batteries on the land,
Round its faint but fearless
band
Shot and shell
Raining hid the doubtful light;
But they fought the hopeless fight
Long and well,
(Theirs the glory, ours the shame!)
Till the walls were
wrapt in flame,
Then their flag was proudly struck, and
Sumter fell.
Now--oh, look at Sumter now,
In the
gloom!
Mark its scarred and shattered walls,
(Hark!
the ruined rampart falls!)
There's a justice that appals
In its doom;
For this blasted spot of earth
Where
Rebellion had its birth
Is its tomb!
And when Sumter
sinks at last
From the heavens, that shrink aghast,
Hell shall rise in grim derision and make room! |
By
Richard Henry Stoddard (1825 - 1903)
Listed August 26, 2012 |
|
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