Poems (Trask)/Undismayed
UNDISMAYED.
Courage! ye fainting hearts! Though darkness rules to-day, Maybe the morrow's sun may chase The mist and gloom away. Though now War's clarion tongue Rings through the startled air, The voice of Peace shall yet proclaim Its victory everywhere!
Grim into every house Some fearful trouble comes! Oh, God! the lonesome hearts to-night, The desolated homes! For us who stay behind, To watch, and pray, and wait, The lot is harder than for those Who go to seek their fate.
But shall we fail, and sink, Beneath the weight of woe? We who have bid our dearest ones Gird on the sword and go! No! though we suffer loss, And weep our secret tears, We look beyond the present time,— Look to the coming years.
No grand great good can spring Through painless ease to birth! The hand of chastening falls with weight Upon the cringing earth! But midst it all, we know, Through darkness and through light, That God is strong enough to bring The victory to the Right!
October, 1862.