File:Ballads of bravery (1877) (14784998265).jpg

Identifier: balladsofbravery00bake (find matches)
Title: Ballads of bravery
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Baker, George Melville, 1832-1890
Subjects: English poetry
Publisher: Boston : Lee and Shepard
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
The Brave at Home. HE maid who binds her warriors sash, With smile that well her pain dissembles,^ P The while beneath her drooping lash One starry tear-drop hangs and trembles,Though heaven alone records the tear, And fame shall never know the story,Her heart has shed a drop as dearAs eer bedewed the field of glory. The wife who girds her husbands sword, Mid little ones who weep or wonder.And bravely speaks the cheering word. What though her heart be rent asunder.Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear The bolts of death around him rattle,Hath shed as sacred blood as eer Was poured upon a field of battle! The mother who conceals her grief, While to her breast her son she presses,Then breathes a few brave words and brief, Kissing the patriot brow she blesses.With no one but her secret God To know the pain that weighs upon her,Sheds holy blood as eer the sod Received on Freedoms field of honor!
Text Appearing After Image:
^^•^ — 3^r^.v^c BALLADS OF BRAVERY. 53 J^ ANE: DIED February i6, iS^j. fi^^^Jp LOFT upon an old basaltic crag, >^^^ Which, scalped by keen winds that defend the Pole, ^:;:^ Gazes with dead face on the seas that roll Around the secret of the mystic zone,A mighty nations star-bespangled flag Flutters alone •And underneath, upon the lifeless front Of that drear cliff, a simple name is traced, —Fit type of him who, famishing and gaunt,But with a rocky purpose in his soul,Breasted the gathering snows.Clung to the drifting floes.By want beleaguered and by winter chased.Seeking the brother lost amid that frozen waste. Not many months ago we greeted him, Crowned with the icy honors of the North. Across the land his hard-won fame went forth,And Maines deep woods were shaken limb by limb ;His own mild Keystone State, sedate and prim. Burst from decorous quiet as he came ; Hot Southern lips, with eloquence aflame.Sounded his triumph ; Texas, wild and grim.

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