[384]
Love and Faith made blind with tears?
What the lessons that they taught?
What the glory that they caught
From the onward sweeping years?
Here are they who marched away,
Followed by our hopes and fears;
Nobler never went than they
To a bloodier, madder fray,
In the lapse of all the years.
Garlands still shall wreathe the swords
That they drew amid our cheers;
Children's lispings, women's words,
Sunshine, and the songs of birds
Greet them here through all the years.
With them ever shall abide
All our love and all our prayers.
‘What of them?’ The battle's tide
Hath not scathed them. Lo, they ride
Still with Stuart down the years.
Where are they who went away,
Sped with smiles that changed to tears?
Lee yet leads the lines of gray—
Stonewall still rides down this way;
They are Fame's through all the years.
III.
Is that all? Was duty naught?Love and Faith made blind with tears?
What the lessons that they taught?
What the glory that they caught
From the onward sweeping years?
Here are they who marched away,
Followed by our hopes and fears;
Nobler never went than they
To a bloodier, madder fray,
In the lapse of all the years.
Garlands still shall wreathe the swords
That they drew amid our cheers;
Children's lispings, women's words,
Sunshine, and the songs of birds
Greet them here through all the years.
With them ever shall abide
All our love and all our prayers.
‘What of them?’ The battle's tide
Hath not scathed them. Lo, they ride
Still with Stuart down the years.
Where are they who went away,
Sped with smiles that changed to tears?
Lee yet leads the lines of gray—
Stonewall still rides down this way;
They are Fame's through all the years.