Complete Poetical Works. Bret Harte
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Название: Complete Poetical Works

Автор: Bret Harte

Издательство: Public Domain

Жанр: Поэзия

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СКАЧАТЬ Yet now rode steadily up the street

               To the phantom bugle's warning:

           Till it reached the Capitol square, and wheeled,

           And there in the moonlight stood revealed

           A well-known form that in State and field

               Had led our patriot sires:

           Whose face was turned to the sleeping camp,

           Afar through the river's fog and damp,

           That showed no flicker, nor waning lamp,

               Nor wasted bivouac fires.

           And I saw a phantom army come,

           With never a sound of fife or drum,

           But keeping time to a throbbing hum

               Of wailing and lamentation:

           The martyred heroes of Malvern Hill,

           Of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville,

           The men whose wasted figures fill

               The patriot graves of the nation.

           And there came the nameless dead,—the men

           Who perished in fever swamp and fen,

           The slowly-starved of the prison pen;

               And, marching beside the others,

           Came the dusky martyrs of Pillow's fight,

           With limbs enfranchised and bearing bright;

           I thought—perhaps 'twas the pale moonlight—

               They looked as white as their brothers!

           And so all night marched the nation's dead,

           With never a banner above them spread,

           Nor a badge, nor a motto brandished;

           No mark—save the bare uncovered head

               Of the silent bronze Reviewer;

           With never an arch save the vaulted sky;

           With never a flower save those that lie

           On the distant graves—for love could buy

               No gift that was purer or truer.

           So all night long swept the strange array,

           So all night long till the morning gray

           I watched for one who had passed away;

               With a reverent awe and wonder,—

           Till a blue cap waved in the length'ning line,

           And I knew that one who was kin of mine

           Had come; and I spake—and lo! that sign

               Awakened me from my slumber.

      THE COPPERHEAD

(1864)

           There is peace in the swamp where the Copperhead sleeps,

           Where the waters are stagnant, the white vapor creeps,

           Where the musk of Magnolia hangs thick in the air,

           And the lilies' phylacteries broaden in prayer.

           There is peace in the swamp, though the quiet is death,

           Though the mist is miasma, the upas-tree's breath,

           Though no echo awakes to the cooing of doves,—

           There is peace: yes, the peace that the Copperhead loves.

           Go seek him: he coils in the ooze and the drip,

           Like a thong idly flung from the slave-driver's whip;

           But beware the false footstep,—the stumble that brings

           A deadlier lash than the overseer swings.

           Never arrow so true, never bullet so dread,

           As the straight steady stroke of that hammer-shaped head;

           Whether slave or proud planter, who braves that dull crest,

           Woe to him who shall trouble the Copperhead's rest!

           Then why waste your labors, brave hearts and strong men,

           In tracking a trail to the Copperhead's den?

           Lay your axe to the cypress, hew open the shade

           To the free sky and sunshine Jehovah has made;

           Let the breeze of the North sweep the vapors away,

           Till the stagnant lake ripples, the freed waters play;

           And then to your heel can you righteously doom

           The Copperhead born of its shadow and gloom!

      A SANITARY MESSAGE

           Last night, above the whistling wind,

             I heard the welcome rain,—

           A fusillade upon the roof,

             A tattoo on the pane:

           The keyhole piped; the chimney-top

             A warlike trumpet blew;

           Yet, mingling with these sounds of strife,

             A softer voice stole through.

           "Give thanks, O brothers!" said the voice,

             "That He who sent the rains

           Hath spared your fields the scarlet dew

             That drips from patriot veins:

           I've seen the grass on Eastern graves

             In brighter verdure rise;

           But, oh! the rain that gave it life

             Sprang first from human eyes.

           "I come to wash away no stain

             Upon your wasted lea;

           I raise no banners, save the ones

             The forest waves to me:

           Upon the mountain side, where Spring

             Her farthest picket sets,

           My reveille awakes a host

             Of grassy bayonets.

           "I visit every humble roof;

             I mingle with the low:

           Only upon the highest peaks

             My blessings fall in snow;

           Until, in tricklings of the stream

             And drainings of the lea,

           My unspent bounty comes at last

             To mingle СКАЧАТЬ