Poems (Gould, 1833)/The Scar of Lexington
THE SCAR OF LEXINGTON.
With cherub smile, the prattling boy, Who on the veteran's breast reclines,Has thrown aside his favorite toy, And round his tender finger twinesThose scattered locks, that with the flightOf four-score years are snowy white;And, as a scar arrests his view,He cries, "Grand-Pa', what wounded you?"
"My child, 'tis five and fifty years This very day, this very hour,Since from a scene of blood and tears, Where valor fell by hostile power,I saw retire the setting sunBehind the hills of Lexington;While pale and lifeless on the plainMy brothers lay, for freedom slain!
And ere that fight, the first that spoke In thunder to our land, was o'er,Amid the clouds of fire and smoke I felt my garments wet with gore!'T is since that dread and wild affray,That trying, dark, eventful dayFrom this calm April eve so far,I wear upon my cheek the scar.
When thou to manhood shalt be grown, And I am gone in dust to sleep,May freedom's rights be still thine own, And thou and thine in quiet reapThe unblighted product of the toilIn which my blood bedewed the soil!And, while those fruits thou shalt enjoy,Bethink thee of this scar, my boy!
But, should thy country's voice be heard To bid her children fly to arms,Gird on thy Grandsire's trusty sword; And, undismayed by war's alarms,Remember, on the battle-field,I made the hand of God my shield!And, be thou spared, like me, to tellWhat bore thee up, while others fell!