A strong joy fills
A rapture far beyond the tongue s cold power
My heart in golden autumn fills and thrills!
And I would rather stalk the breezy hills
Descending to my bower
Nightly by the bold spirit of health attended
Than pine where life is splendid.
THEODORE O HARA
[Theodore O Hara was born of Irish parentage at Danville, Kentucky, in 1820. Upon graduating from St. Joseph s College, at Bardstown, Kentucky, he studied law. After serving in the Mexican War, he was editor of a paper in Frankfort, Kentucky, and later of one in Mobile, Alabama. He participated in the Civil War, and, after its close, he engaged in farming in Alabama, where he died in 1867. O Hara has left, so far as is known, but two poems,
"The Bivouac of the Dead " and " The Old Pioneer."]
THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD
The muffled drum s sad roll has beat The soldier s last tattoo: No more on Life s parade shall meet That brave and fallen few. On Fame s eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead. No rumor of the foe s advance Now swells upon the wind; No troubled thought at midnight haunts Of loved ones left behind;
