Songs In Many Keys 1849-1861

The piping of our slender, peaceful reeds     Whispers uncared for while the trumpets bray;     Song is thin air; our hearts' exulting play     Beats time but to the tread of marching deeds,     Following the mighty van that Freedom leads,     Her glorious standard flaming to the day!     The crimsoned pavement where a hero bleeds     Breathes nobler lessons than the poet's lay.     Strong arms, broad breasts, brave hearts, are better worth     Than strains that sing the ravished echoes dumb.     Hark! 't is the loud reverberating drum     Rolls o'er the prairied West, the rock-bound North     The myriad-handed Future stretches forth     Its shadowy palms. Behold, we come, - we come!     Turn o'er these idle leaves. Such toys as these     Were not unsought for, as, in languid dreams,     We lay beside our lotus-feeding streams,     And nursed our fancies in forgetful ease.     It matters little if they pall or please,     Dropping untimely, while the sudden gleams     Glare from the mustering clouds whose blackness seems     Too swollen to hold its lightning from the trees.     Yet, in some lull of passion, when at last     These calm revolving moons that come and go -     Turning our months to years, they creep so slow -     Have brought us rest, the not unwelcome past     May flutter to thee through these leaflets, cast     On the wild winds that all around us blow.     May 1, 1861.