Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1850-08-22
For the Burlington Hawk. Eye.
REQUIEM,

For the Burlington Hawk. Eye
REQUIEM,
To tho Late President Taylor.
RY PROF. }. PIERsoN.
see those dark pals that shade the sky
Ger green Potomac's eastern side,
They point Columbia's fearful eve
TO where is laid her martial pride.
And look the Capital is lone,
But from its halls Of state now goes
A wailins dirge through freedoms zone:
The Nations blended tone of woes.
A chief has falpn; man of might,
The hero Of the fiery car
Who burst on Buena vista's height,
The wrathful cloud of fatal war;
And from the Tropics dazzling eye
Didst bid its lurid lightnings fall,
Now sloping down saltillo's sky,
Now cleaving Cherubusco's wall.
Proud CASTLES sons in sad dismay
Afrighted fed their native hills,
While Carnage hover'd o'er their way,
And crimson'd Rios hundred rills.
Pursuing still, alarm'd their fear;
But hunted down they stoop to die
Beneath the fash Of Taylor's spear.
The Aztec weeping look'd around
Saw all that life or light endears,
All-tarnish'd strew the crimson ground,
And wilder gush'd his fount of tears,
For all was gone, foreign tongue,
Resounded in his palace courts
Or there in scorn his glory sung,
Or echoed loud with festive sports.
These were the triumphs of thy arms,
Won in the front of doubtful war,
Which filled the earth with dire alarms
And spread Columbia's fame afar;
And o'er hundred fields thy fame
Where thou thy brightest laurels won
Shall laud thro' Time thy honor'd name,
As second to great Washington.
While these do stand and proudly rear
Their war-scath'd SUBMITS to the skies,
No greener laurel couldst thou wear,
To cheer thy country's fearful eyes;
And heroes still in years unborn
Shall catch fresh ardor from thy name,
Tread down the despot's mace in scorn
And o'cr it rise to deathless fame.
A tempest on the battle field
O'erstcewing Carnage in thy path;
Whose voice the hero's bosom steeld
And doubled Wars destructive wrath,
And now it soothes its madden'd rage,
Now stills the stormy clash of arms,
And now the soldiers woes assuage
With all the force Of PHYS charms.
Still, Envy with her serpent tongue
Her poison,d shafts upon thee pour'd
Which on thy mail in thunder rung
Yet harmless fell beneath thy sword.
Fair Freedom saw thy northern arms
Avert barbaric Aztec's hate,
And called thee home from Wars alarms,
TO rule and guide the Ship of State.
And here thou prov'dst thyselt sage
In Legislation's varied lore;
Tho vex'd ty feudal Factions rage,
The star of Union safely bore.
Tho from the fiery Southern sky,
1t shed a fear-foreboding light;
Yet thou stil kept on it thine eye
And ledst il through that dismal night.
But on that morn, thou lefts't the earth
The iheater of all thy fame,
Where thou hast graved thy deeds and wor
High on its peaks in battles fame;
And with those ones who with thee bore
The tug Of War on Mexic's steep
Who pour'd their lives in blood and gore,
Thy ashes now in glory sleep.
No longer now where banners wave
Or bristling columns shade the plain
Shalt thou to Victory lead the brave
Or mark with sorrows eye the slain,
Nor shalt the Trumpeps clang excite
The impetuous ardor of thy breast
To strike for country's sacred right,
When daring foes her peace molest.
For all thy conflicts now are past;
The trying scenes of camp and field
Great through them all; e'en to the last
And like hero then didst yield.
The King Of Terrors gard awhile
Upon thy brave courageous face
And added with CHASTITY smile
81 smite the noblest Of his race.o
Now with the spirits OF the dead
The thunder bolts ofrueful war
Thy spirit lifts its awful head
And shouts resound thy name afar;
The Spartan band, with him who bore
Disastrous fate on Persia's might
On fair Thessalia's classic shore;
Admiring gaze upon thy sight.
There Hardin presses to thy side,
The soldier Of thy fondest love,
And Ringgold Mary's martial pride,
With grace and sweetness round thee mo,
And Clay, great Henry's noble son,
The gen'rous soul'd; the brave and true,
In arms youth; yet match'd by none
Beholding meets thy raptur'd view.
They were the partners of thy care
On CASTLES carnage bloated plain,
And now they must thy converse share
Beyond the reach OF battles pain.
Ellysium's groves are never sere,
Its crystal streams are never dry,
But glide through an Eternal year
Unmar'd by Season, Sun, or Sky.
And in those groves the mighty stray
Free from corruption's carnal blot
And freed from Times duh woof OF clay
Earth, and its woes are all forgot,
In friendly converse there recount,
Your earthly pilgrimages o'er,
And Quafr Of Pleasures blissful fount
And God the Patriot chief adore.
Peace to your dust, ye mighty dead!