I turned to the steep path of fame,
I said, “It is over yon height—
This land with the beautiful name—
Ambition will lend me its light.”
But I paused in my journey ere night,
For the way grew so lonely and troubled;
I said—my anxiety doubled—
“This is not the road to Content.”
Then I joined the great rabble and throng
That frequents the moneyed world’s mart;
But the greed, and the grasping and wrong,
Left me only one wish—to depart.
And sickened, and saddened at heart,
I hurried away from the gateway,
For my soul and my spirit said straightway.
“This is not the road to Content.”
Then weary in body and brain,
An overgrown path I detected,
And I said “I will hide with my pain
In this byway, unused and neglected.”
Lo! it led to the realm God selected
To crown with His best gifts of beauty,
And through the dark pathway of duty
I came to the land of Content.
WARNING
High in the heavens I saw the moon this morning,
Albeit the sun shone bright;
Unto my soul it spoke, in voice of warning,
“Remember Night!”
AFTER THE BATTLES ARE OVER
[Read at Reunion of the G. A. T., Madison, Wis., July 4, 1872.]
After the battles are over,
And the war drums cease to beat,
And no more is heard on the hillside
The sound of hurrying feet,
Full many a noble action,
That was done in the days of strife
By the soldier is half forgotten,
In the peaceful walks of life.
Just as the tangled grasses,
In Summer’s warmth and light,
Grow over the graves of the fallen
And hide them away from sight,
So many an act of valour,
And many a deed sublime,
Fade from the mind of the soldier
O’ergrown by the grass of time
Not so should they be rewarded,
Those noble deeds of old!
They should live for ever and ever,
When the heroes’ hearts are cold.
Then rally, ye brave old comrades,
Old veterans, reunite!
Uproot Time’s tangled grasses—
Live over the march, and the fight.