THE SOLDIER'S DREAM
Our bugles sang truce—for the night-cloud had lowered And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky; And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered, The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.
When reposing that night on my pallet of straw,5 By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain, At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw, And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again.
Methought from the battlefield's dreadful array, Far, far I had roamed on a desolate track;10 'Twas autumn—and sunshine arose on the way To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back.
I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft In life's morning march, when my bosom was young; I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft,15 And knew the sweet strain that the corn-reapers sung.
Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore From my home and my weeping friends never to part; My little ones kissed me a thousand times o'er, And my wife sobbed aloud in her fulness of heart.20
"Stay, stay with us—rest, thou art weary and worn;" And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay; But sorrow returned with the dawning of morn, And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.
—Thomas Campbell
Preparatory.—Describe the picture suggested by this poem.
Compare the soldier's dream with the vision of The Private of the Buffs in the hour of danger, or with The Slave's Dream in Longfellow's poem.
Divide the poem into three distinct parts, giving to each a descriptive title.
Expand the thoughts contained in the last two lines of the poem, using, if possible, illustrations from literature or real life. What feelings do these lines arouse?
Observe the difficulties of Articulation in ll. 1, 2, 13 and 16. (Appendix [A, 6] and [3].)
How can each part of the poem be made to stand out by itself? (Introduction, p. [10].)