Songs from the Smoke

by Madeleine S. Miller

THE VOICE FROM THE FIELD

[Dedicated to the National burying ground at Gettysburg on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of that Battle.]

Across the field in silent files they sleep, With none to rout their ranks while Death doth keep His watch relentless o'er the nameless heap Of unknown men beneath the numbered stones. More orderly are they than when they marched In broken regiments the sun had parched And powder torn, across the fields, fire-arched. And from their silence now rise up loud tones Which speak to all that breathe, a new command, Whose voice shall ring through all the peaceful land: “Be strong! Keep brave thy heart and clean, thy hand, To right with promptness all the wrongs that rise To hide the God-head's face from brothers' eyes. Rear up in love the Nation's life we bore! Be strong, be strong, till wrong shall be no more!”