Some sweet old homesick soldier-ballad, one
Beloved of many a sunburnt longing son
Of Michigan or Maine,
Or that light laughing tune wherewith the South
Fifed her boy-soldiers blithe to the cannon’s mouth,—
Suddenly all is real once more,
The hoping, the despairing,
The pity and the passion and the daring,
And all the agony of the Brother-War!