With abounding faith in the ultimate triumph of right, the poet yet had all the dread of disaster incident to so sensitive an organization. At the defeat at Bull Run he was prostrated.
It is in the major and the minor of his sufferings and his trust that his songs, “In War Time,” were sung. “Luther’s Hymn,” the sombreness of “The Watchers,” the depth of prayer in “Thy Will Be Done”—all show the struggle and sorrow of his spirit. But hope speaks in “The Battle Autumn of 1862,” where he sings:
“Oh, give to us in times like these,
The vision of her eyes;
And make her fields and fruited trees
Our golden prophecies!
“Oh, give to us her finer ear!
Above this stormy din,
We, too, would hear the bells of cheer
Ring peace and freedom in.”