The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes Part 65

When Canaan's hosts are scattered, And all her walls lie flat, What follows next in order?

The Lord will see to that We'll break the tyrant's sceptre,-- We 'll build the people's throne,-- When half the world is Freedom's, Then all the world's our own To Canaan, to Canaan The Lord has led us forth, To sweep the rebel thres.h.i.+ng-floors, A whirlwind from the North.

August 12, 1862.

"THUS SAITH THE LORD, I OFFER THEE THREE THINGS."

IN poisonous dens, where traitors hide Like bats that fear the day, While all the land our charters claim Is sweating blood and breathing flame, Dead to their country's woe and shame, The recreants whisper STAY!

In peaceful homes, where patriot fires On Love's own altars glow, The mother hides her trembling fear, The wife, the sister, checks a tear, To breathe the parting word of cheer, Soldier of Freedom, Go!

In halls where Luxury lies at ease, And Mammon keeps his state, Where flatterers fawn and menials crouch, The dreamer, startled from his couch, Wrings a few counters from his pouch, And murmurs faintly WAIT!

In weary camps, on trampled plains That ring with fife and drum, The battling host, whose harness gleams Along the crimson-flowing streams, Calls, like a warning voice in dreams, We want you, Brother! COME!

Choose ye whose bidding ye will do,-- To go, to wait, to stay!

Sons of the Freedom-loving town, Heirs of the Fathers' old renown, The servile yoke, the civic crown, Await your choice To-DAY!

The stake is laid! O gallant youth With yet unsilvered brow, If Heaven should lose and h.e.l.l should win, On whom shall lie the mortal sin, That cries aloud, It might have been?

G.o.d calls you--answer NOW.

1862.

NEVER OR NOW

AN APPEAL

LISTEN, young heroes! your country is calling!

Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true!

Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling, Fill up the ranks that have opened for you!

You whom the fathers made free and defended, Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame You whose fair heritage spotless descended, Leave not your children a birthright of shame!

Stay not for questions while Freedom stands gasping!

Wait not till Honor lies wrapped in his pall!

Brief the lips' meeting be, swift the hands' clasping,-- "Off for the wars!" is enough for them all!

Break from the arms that would fondly caress you!

Hark! 't is the bugle-blast, sabres are drawn!

Mothers shall pray for you, fathers shall bless you, Maidens shall weep for you when you are gone!

Never or now! cries the blood of a nation, Poured on the turf where the red rose should bloom; Now is the day and the hour of salvation,-- Never or now! peals the trumpet of doom!

Never or now! roars the hoa.r.s.e-throated cannon Through the black canopy blotting the skies; Never or now! flaps the sh.e.l.l-blasted pennon O'er the deep ooze where the c.u.mberland lies!

From the foul dens where our brothers are dying, Aliens and foes in the land of their birth,-- From the rank swamps where our martyrs are lying Pleading in vain for a handful of earth,--

From the hot plains where they perish outnumbered, Furrowed and ridged by the battle-field's plough, Comes the loud summons; too long you have slumbered, Hear the last Angel-trump,--Never or Now!

1862.

ONE COUNTRY

ONE country! Treason's writhing asp Struck madly at her girdle's clasp, And Hatred wrenched with might and main To rend its welded links in twain, While Mammon hugged his golden calf Content to take one broken half, While thankless churls stood idly by And heard unmoved a nation's cry!

One country! "Nay,"--the tyrant crew Shrieked from their dens,--"it shall be two!

Ill bodes to us this monstrous birth, That scowls on all the thrones of earth, Too broad yon starry cl.u.s.ter s.h.i.+nes, Too proudly tower the New-World pines, Tear down the 'banner of the free,'

And cleave their land from sea to sea!"

One country still, though foe and "friend"

Our seamless empire strove to rend; Safe! safe' though all the fiends of h.e.l.l Join the red murderers' battle-yell!

What though the lifted sabres gleam, The cannons frown by sh.o.r.e and stream,-- The sabres clash, the cannons thrill, In wild accord, One country still!

One country! in her stress and strain We heard the breaking of a chain!

Look where the conquering Nation swings Her iron flail,--its s.h.i.+vered rings!

Forged by the rebels' crimson hand, That bolt of wrath shall scourge the land Till Peace proclaims on sea and sh.o.r.e One Country now and evermore!

1865.

G.o.d SAVE THE FLAG

WASHED in the blood of the brave and the blooming, s.n.a.t.c.hed from the altars of insolent foes, Burning with star-fires, but never consuming, Flash its broad ribbons of lily and rose.

Vainly the prophets of Baal would rend it, Vainly his wors.h.i.+ppers pray for its fall; Thousands have died for it, millions defend it, Emblem of justice and mercy to all:

Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors, Mercy that comes with her white-handed train, Soothing all pa.s.sions, redeeming all errors, 'Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.

Borne on the deluge of old usurpations, Drifted our Ark o'er the desolate seas, Bearing the rainbow of hope to the nations, Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!

G.o.d bless the Flag and its loyal defenders, While its broad folds o'er the battle-field wave, Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors, Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!

1865.