But no human audience spell-bound listened to its ocean roll.
Pure and peaceful as the music of a bird
A thought like some sweet wild-flower has blossomed in a heart
And the angels watched its petals bright unfold
But no mortal knew the beauty of its poetry and art,
No tongue its hidden jewel ever told.
A sunbeam has illumined perchance a darkened path—
A sunbeam bright with love and light and hope,
Or a shadow dark with sadness, or black with hate and wrath
O'er some life's young morn of promise dared to grope;
'Tis but a common life-wave that beat upon the beach
Till broken on the rocks and backward cast
It left no spray of seaweed or tinted shell in reach,
Forgotten 'midst the surges of the past.
When the clang of war is over there are heroes lifted high
Whose noble deeds a nation's tongue applaud
But oh, the many thousands who have dared to do and die
Unhonored, for their country and their God!
Where would the great commanders' illustrious laurels be,
The generals' career of high renown
But for the common soldiers unknown to history
Like grain before the harvesters cut down?
O'er the dust of battle-heroes there are monuments upraised
Where the pennon of their triumph proudly waves
But oh, the battle-heroes unhonored and unpraised
At rest where grasses creep o'er unmarked graves!
And some as brave, unshrinking in Duty's arduous path
As the grandest hero history can name—
They faced the red artillery, the cannon's demon wrath
And wrote in lines of blood another's fame.
Oh, the heroes who have figured on the great world's changing stage!
Pure and peaceful as the music of a bird
A thought like some sweet wild-flower has blossomed in a heart
And the angels watched its petals bright unfold
But no mortal knew the beauty of its poetry and art,
No tongue its hidden jewel ever told.
A sunbeam has illumined perchance a darkened path—
A sunbeam bright with love and light and hope,
Or a shadow dark with sadness, or black with hate and wrath
O'er some life's young morn of promise dared to grope;
'Tis but a common life-wave that beat upon the beach
Till broken on the rocks and backward cast
It left no spray of seaweed or tinted shell in reach,
Forgotten 'midst the surges of the past.
When the clang of war is over there are heroes lifted high
Whose noble deeds a nation's tongue applaud
But oh, the many thousands who have dared to do and die
Unhonored, for their country and their God!
Where would the great commanders' illustrious laurels be,
The generals' career of high renown
But for the common soldiers unknown to history
Like grain before the harvesters cut down?
O'er the dust of battle-heroes there are monuments upraised
Where the pennon of their triumph proudly waves
But oh, the battle-heroes unhonored and unpraised
At rest where grasses creep o'er unmarked graves!
And some as brave, unshrinking in Duty's arduous path
As the grandest hero history can name—
They faced the red artillery, the cannon's demon wrath
And wrote in lines of blood another's fame.
Oh, the heroes who have figured on the great world's changing stage!
[ 18 ]
