Poems Class of 29 (1851-1889) | Page 6

shakes the wave,
It thunders on the shore,--
One
flag, one land, one heart, one hand,
One Nation, evermore!
"CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE "
1863
YES, tyrants, you hate us, and fear while you hate
The self-ruling,
chain-breaking, throne-shaking State!
The night-birds dread
morning,--your instinct is true,--
The day-star of Freedom brings
midnight for you!
Why plead with the deaf for the cause of mankind?
The owl hoots at
noon that the eagle is blind!
We ask not your reasons,--'t were
wasting our time,--
Our life is a menace, our welfare a crime!
We have battles to fight, we have foes to subdue,--
Time waits not for
us, and we wait not for you!
The mower mows on, though the adder
may writhe
And the copper-head coil round the blade of his
scythe!
"No sides in this quarrel," your statesmen may urge,
Of school-house
and wages with slave-pen scourge!--
No sides in the quarrel!
proclaim it as well
To the angels that fight with the legions of hell!
They kneel in God's temple, the North and the South,
With blood on
each weapon and prayers in each mouth.
Whose cry shall be
answered? Ye Heavens, attend
The lords of the lash as their voices
ascend!
"O Lord, we are shaped in the image of Thee,--
Smite down the base

millions that claim to be free,
And lend thy strong arm to the
soft-handed race
Who eat not their bread in the sweat of their face!"
So pleads the proud planter. What echoes are these?
The bay of his
bloodhound is borne on the breeze,
And, lost in the shriek of his
victim's despair,
His voice dies unheard.--Hear the Puritan's prayer!
"O Lord, that didst smother mankind in thy flood,
The sun is as
sackcloth, the moon is as blood,
The stars fall to earth as untimely are
cast
The figs from the fig-tree that shakes in the blast!
"All nations, all tribes in whose nostrils is breath
Stand gazing at Sin
as she travails with Death!
Lord, strangle the monster that struggles
to birth,
Or mock us no more with thy 'Kingdom on Earth!'
"If Ammon and Moab must reign in the land
Thou gavest thine Israel,
fresh from thy hand,
Call Baal and Ashtaroth out of their graves
To
be the new gods for the empire of slaves!"
Whose God will ye serve, O ye rulers of men?
Will ye build you new
shrines in the slave-breeder's den?
Or bow with the children of light,
as they call
On the Judge of the Earth and the Father of All?
Choose wisely, choose quickly, for time moves apace,--
Each day is
an age in the life of our race!
Lord, lead them in love, ere they hasten
in fear
From the fast-rising flood that shall girdle the sphere!
F. W. C.
1864
FAST as the rolling seasons bring
The hour of fate to those we love,

Each pearl that leaves the broken string
Is set in Friendship's crown
above.
As narrower grows the earthly chain,
The circle widens in
the sky;
These are our treasures that remain,
But those are stars that

beam on high.
We miss--oh, how we miss!--his face,--
With trembling accents speak
his name.
Earth cannot fill his shadowed place
From all her rolls of
pride and fame;
Our song has lost the silvery thread
That carolled
through his jocund lips;
Our laugh is mute, our smile is fled,
And
all our sunshine in eclipse.
And what and whence the wondrous charm
That kept his manhood
boylike still,--
That life's hard censors could disarm
And lead them
captive at his will?
His heart was shaped of rosier clay,--
His veins
were filled with ruddier fire,--
Time could not chill him, fortune sway,

Nor toil with all its burdens tire.
His speech burst throbbing from its fount
And set our colder thoughts
aglow,
As the hot leaping geysers mount
And falling melt the
Iceland snow.
Some word, perchance, we counted rash,--
Some
phrase our calmness might disclaim,
Yet 't was the sunset's lightning's
flash,
No angry bolt, but harmless flame.
Man judges all, God knoweth each;
We read the rule, He sees the law;

How oft his laughing children teach
The truths his prophets never
saw
O friend, whose wisdom flowered in mirth,
Our hearts are sad,
our eyes are dim;
He gave thy smiles to brighten earth,--
We trust
thy joyous soul to Him!
Alas!--our weakness Heaven forgive!
We murmur, even while we
trust,
"How long earth's breathing burdens live,
Whose hearts,
before they die, are dust!"
But thou!--through grief's untimely tears

We ask with half-reproachful sigh--
"Couldst thou not watch a few
brief years
Till Friendship faltered, ' Thou mayst die'?"
Who loved our boyish years so well?
Who knew so well their
pleasant tales,
And all those livelier freaks could tell
Whose oft-told

story never fails?
In vain we turn our aching eyes,--
In vain we
stretch our eager hands,--
Cold in his wintry shroud he lies
Beneath
the dreary drifting sands!
Ah, speak not thus! He lies not there!
We see him, hear him as of old!

He comes! He claims his wonted chair;
His beaming face we still
behold!
His voice rings clear in all our songs,
And loud his mirthful
accents rise;
To us our brother's life belongs,--
Dear friends, a
classmate never dies!
THE LAST CHARGE