This page has been validated.
IN THE DEFENCES.
243
The earthworks, draped with summer weeds and vines,
The rifle-pits, half hid with tangled briers,
But wait their time; for see, along the lines
Rise the faint smokes of lonesome picket-fires,
The rifle-pits, half hid with tangled briers,
But wait their time; for see, along the lines
Rise the faint smokes of lonesome picket-fires,
Where sturdy sentinels on silent beat
Cheat the long hours of wakeful loneliness
With thoughts of home, and faces dear and sweet,
And, on the edge of danger, dream of bliss.
Cheat the long hours of wakeful loneliness
With thoughts of home, and faces dear and sweet,
And, on the edge of danger, dream of bliss.
Yet at a word, how wild and fierce a change
Would rend and startle all the earth and skies
With blinding glare, and noises dread and strange,
And shrieks, and shouts, and deathly agonies.
Would rend and startle all the earth and skies
With blinding glare, and noises dread and strange,
And shrieks, and shouts, and deathly agonies.
The wide-mouthed guns would war, and hissing shells
Would pierce the shuddering sky with fiery thrills,
The battle rage and roll in thunderous swells,
And war's fierce anguish shake the solid hills.
Would pierce the shuddering sky with fiery thrills,
The battle rage and roll in thunderous swells,
And war's fierce anguish shake the solid hills.
But now how tranquilly the golden gloom
Creeps up the gorgeous forest-slopes, and flows
Creeps up the gorgeous forest-slopes, and flows
