The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1869-09-15
2oetieal.
A RE0UIEM FOE THE SOUTH

A REQUIEM FOR THE SOUTH.
WRITTEN FOR THE ~PICAYUNE BY META, OF
CHICAGO.
Land of nv birth, dear sunny South,
An exile from MY native shore.
But glorying in thy ancient fame
Thy lofty front iii days of yorei
With trembling hand tonch the Tyre
To mourn thy fate, thy fallen men,
Aud chant the requiem OF the dead,
Sleeping amid the valleys green.
Home of the brave thy gallant sons
For freedom fought Ger land and seas,
And symbol of the bold and free,
Thy banner iloated on the breeze.
Bnt now its folds are in the dust,
Gone for q time thy triumph high,
And nameless graves from shore to shore,
Mark where thy heroes Wondering lie.
Thy fields now smile in beauty rare,
Thy skies are cloudlcss and serene,
Thy forest trees still tower aloft,
And hills are clothed in livery green.
Thy rIancing streams and brilliant flowers
Are still the same-still bright and talr,
And waited from thy orange bowers
A wealth of perfume fills the air.
But ruined homes, deserted halls,
And hearts from which all joy has fled,
The story of thy wrongs relate,
And mourn thy great heroic dead.
Sorrow cnshrouds thy hills and wales,
Thy cities fair, and adam bowers,
Linsers mid relics of the past,
Aud wceps the hopes OF vanished hours.
Where arc the brave, the bold, and true
Who burning 20 avenge thy fame,
Sprang eager at their country's call
To win II patriots honored name
An answer comes from bleeding hearts,
They slumber Oh their early biers,
Upon the soil they died to save,
They fell amid a nations tears.
Where through Virginia's valley fair
ss The Sicnandoah's gfittering flows,
Immortal Jackson calmly rests
Unconscious of his country's woes.
Eternal sunshine fingers round
The hallow'd spot where Freedom wceps,
Where glorious in his young renown
The pure heroic Ashby sleeps.
The rocky eleus of Tennessee .i
Were watercd by her children's blood,
And Peace now smiles upon a land
Empurplcd in it's crimson food.
There Johnston fell on ShilOh's plains
When brothers met in hostile strife
There, to his country's altar fair,
He gave a patriots noble life.
While tliro' our once bright, happy South
Avail of universal grief
Swells from the nations heart of hearts,
And seeks in vain to find relief,
1t tells u tale, a fearful tale,
OF Joys that dawned too bright to last
OF hopes of glory, dreams of fame,
Now buried in the mourniul past.
R~e-echoing with n thrilling strain
Through old Virginia's mountains high,
1t signs amid the gloomy pines
Where Cardinals heroes lie.
1t mingles with the oceans roar
On Georgia's low and sandy shore,
And. rushing through the Everglades,
Swells to the winds and waves once more,
In saddened notes of deepest woe
Across the cotton fields it sweeps 3
Where Alabama's teardrops fall
Upon the sod whero Yalor sleeps;
And Mississippi's mighty stream
Rolls onward with majestic flow
Where valiant hearts are cold in death
Aud manly forms are lying low.
Soft zephyrs sigh mid orange bowers
OF Mississippi's sister State,
And Nature smiles in fairest garb,
While hearts alone are desolate.
Where the Lone STAR of Texas floats,
A dirge is chaunted to the wave p
For those who, far from friends and home,
Are slumbering in q prisons grave.
But though thou'rt fallen in the dust;
Gone from thy brow the diadem;
Though dimmed the banner purity;
And lost in night each starry gem,
Thy destiny is glorious still.
Proud land of heroes, Queen of yOre,
Again thou'lt raise thy dropping head,
And be our pride and boast once more.
Heroic hearts still beat for thee,
Still love thee in thy agony,
Still live to guard thy honor fair,
And hail thy better destiny.
Though dark the record of the past,
Aud darker still tho present hour,
Thou'rt dearer to thy children now,
Than in thy day of pride ond power.
And he the soul of chivalry,
Virginia's great heroic son,
Has lent a lustre to the past
Far brighter than by valor won.
As patriot, hero, generous fee,
His honored name forever lives,
Invested with q peoples love,
Aud all, undying glory gives.
nE-OVTNU