Sick with fever and racked with pain, he could not stay away,
For he heard the song of the yester-years in the deep-mouthed cannon’s bay—
He heard in the calling song of the guns there was work for him to do,
Where his country’s best blood splashed and flowed ’round the old Red, White and Blue.
Fevered body and hero heart! This Union’s heart to you
Beats out in love and reverence—and to each dear boy in blue
Who stood or fell ’mid the shot and shell, and cheered in the face of the foe,
As, wan and white, to the heart of the fight rode little old Fighting Joe!
James Lindsay Gordon.
