Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1865-08-04
FREMONT SANDUSKY COUNTY, OHIO, AUGUST 4 1865
OUR SOLDIERS.

The following is the poem by Oliver Wendell
Holmes, read at the recent commemoration OF
soldiers services, at Harvard University:
Four summers coined their golden light in leaves,
Four vatchful sutumns flung them to the gale,
Four winters wore the shroud the tempest weaves,
The fourth wan April wept DER hill and vale;
And still the var-clouds scowled on sea and land
With the red CLEANS fbattle staining through,
When 10! as parted by an angels hand,
They open, and the heavens again are blusl
Which is the dream, the present or the past:
The night of anguish or the joyous morn:
The long, long years with horrors overcast,
Or the sweet promise of the day newborn!
Tell us, o father, as thine arms enfold
Thy beIted hrst-born in their fast embrace,
Murmuring the prayer the patriarch breathed old
SNOW let me die, for I have seen thy facer
Tell us, o mother-nay thou canst not speak.
But thy fond eyes shall answer. brimmed with joy
Press thy mute lips against the Drowned cheek.
Is sthis phautom-thy returning boy:
Tell us, o maiden sh, what csust thou tell
That natures record is not first to teach
The open volume all read we'll,
With its twin rose-hued pages full of speech:
And ye who mourn your dead-how sterDly true
The cruel hour which wrenched their lives away
Swallowed with sorrows midnight veilfor you,
For them the dawning Of immortal dayl
Dream-ike these years of conflict, not dreaml
Death, ruin, ashes tell the awful tale,
Readily the flaming war tracks lurid CLEAN:
No dream, but truth that turns the nations palel
For on the pillar raised by martyr hands
Burns the rekndled beacon of the right,
Sowing its seeds of fire DER all the lands
Thrones look century older in its light!
Rome had her triumphs; round the conqueror's car
The eusigns waved, the brazen clarions blew,
And DER the rceking spoils of bandit
With outspread wings the cruel eagles few.
Arms treasures, captives kings in clanking chains
Urged on by tramphng cohorts bronzed and SCARED,
And wild-eyed wonders shared on Lybiau plains,
Lion and ostrich and camelopard. 'i
Vain all that praetors cutched, that consus brought
When Rome's returning legions crowned their lord;
Less the least brave deed these bands have wrought
We clssp, unclenchng from the bloody sword
Theirs was the mighty work that foretold,
They know not halftheir glorious toll has Won,
For this is Heavens same battle-ioined of old
Behold vision none hath understood
The breaking of the of the Apocalyptic seal;
Twice rinds the sun,mons.-Hail, and FIRE and bIood
Then the third angel blows his trumpet peal.
Loud vail the dwellers on the myrtled coasts,
The green savanuas swell the uiaddsned cry,
And with yell from all the demon hosts
Falls the great star called wormwood from the skyl
Bitter it mingles with the poisoned flow,
of the warm rivers winding to the shore;
Thousands must drink the waves of death and woe,
But the star of fwormwood stains the heavens more
Peace smiles at last; the Nation calls her
To sheathe tho sword; her battle flag she furls,
Speaks in glad thunders from uushotted guns,
And hides her rubies under milk-white pearls.
Dye that fought for Freedom, living, dead,
One sacred host of Gods annointed Queen,
Forevery holy drop your veins have shed
We breathe welcome to our bowers Of green!
Welcome, We living! from the foemau's grippe
Your country's banner it yours to wrest-
All, many forehead shows the banner stripe
And stars, once crimson, halIOw many breast.
And ye, pale heroes, who from glory's bed
Mark when your old battalions form in line
Move in their ranks with noiseless tread.
And shape uDheard the evening countersign.
Come with your comrades, the returning brave,
Shoulder to shoulder, they await you here;
These lent the life their martyr brothers gave
Living and dead alike forever dear!