Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1867-12-05
P O e T I G 4 L j..
CONFERENCE.-THE.
THE PRICE OF PIECE.

dark hair fell,
Which lay dishsvelled on her breast-and
many shred of gray
Wound midst those tresses, sorrows gift,
while on her breast they lay.
She muttered murmurred strains, as to and fro
she paced,
And mildly heamed her piercisg eye, and on
her wasted face
a Burning blush of fever glowed, then rolled
the burning tids
OF thought from those coral lips, as passionate
she cried
peace Peace they tell me peace has come,
they say the war is Ger,
The bat;le-cry, the Shrek Of DEATH shall fill
the land no more;
They bid my heart rejoice, be glad, they bid
my tears to cease;
Yes, yes, my heart, thou should st rejoice, for
thou has paid for Peace.
All let me count the price once more, for
fear my lips restrain
Tie fantest note that they should give to that
rejoicing stra u;
had 3 son. a noble boy, just entarsd man.
hoods bloom,
And his young heart, in noole pulse, beat
with the lannon's boom,
nhen first it broke on Soul ern shores, all
the noble rel,
IL i,a, oil IL =,
he fell.
II never saw my boy again, (they say my
tears must cease.)
But ficrber, dropior drop with them, my hsart
pad bIood for Peace.
" Another son, stipling boy, who always by
my side,
Frail as a lily, Has content forever to abide;
Not eighteen SUMMERS had ! nursed, with nil
g mothers care,
This tender plant, when orders came nay only
child to taar
From mine embrace, I knew he'd die, and on
my Bonded knee
begged his life. besousht and wept-bu no,
it could net be.
They bore him off, nor neser met he foe on
hill or plain,
But drooped and died, fallen brave, in
country:s battle slain;
Oh Willie, with thy soft blue eye hush,
my tears must cease;
Yet. darling, with thy dying groans, paid in
part for Peace.
"Now both were gone. whom had left None
but the fond, true heart
Who'd minge tear for tear with mine, and
who had borne part
In every throb of anguish wild which still my
bosom rent,
when eyes were dim, when hair was gray,
with nights of weeping spent,
Fer these sons, | thought that we through
all this midnight gloom,
Would, hand in hand, walk mournfully togeth-
er to the tomb.
"But war, Unsuitable, claimed him too; saw
him too depart,
And something made Of stone, I think, was
given for heart;
| could not weep for many days; l was alone,
alone
With that cold weight within my breast, that
heavy heart Of stone.
clears came and melted it at last; in prison
far away,
Weary and worn, uncared for too, he fingered
day by day;
But Herbert and our Willie, and then the
captive 60,
They broke his chains, knew they did, an
angel told me SO,
And when they bore his soul away and made
his suferings cease,
paid in spirit on his grave all that ovsa
for Peace.
" Must rejoice perchance I might, but was
this ali the price?
All did my jewels, did my tears, my broken
heart suffice?
No; speak upon the battle field ten thousand
nameless graves,
Call on the winds for signs and groans, 60
tell the ocean waves
To bring their dead, the prison walls to speak
their sickening tales,
The price OF Peace, the cost of Peace that I
have paid in walls.
Name broken hearts ON broken hearts till
Pity bid you cease;
And then you'll have not half the price that
we have paid for Peace;
And, oh with suffering life, with broken
heart, and reason dead and gone,
It's price I've paid, its cost l feel-rve lost
them every one.
"For PHYS sake do loose these chains, these
cursed irons break,
They wound my Hesh and tear it tool ne er