I went to see a sorrowing wife,
Who will be widowed soon.”
Child! It is fit that thou shouldst weep;
The very babe unborn would leap
To rescue such as he.
“Our Country” contains no word about the civil strife, although it is classed with “Poems of the War” in her volume entitled Later Lyrics. A prize was offered for a national song while the war was in progress, and Mrs. Howe sent in this poem, Otto Dresel composing the music. Mr. Dresel was a prominent figure in the musical world of Boston for many years and wrote a number of charming songs.
The prize which had been offered for the national song was never awarded, if I remember aright, and Mr. Dresel decided to use the tune he had composed, for the “Army Hymn” of Oliver Wendell Holmes. This was “superbly sung by L. C. Campbell, assisted by the choir and band” at the opening exercises of the Great Metropolitan Fair held in New York during the Civil War, for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission.
“Our Country” thus lost its musical setting, to my mother’s regret.
OUR COUNTRY