When Sherman's March was over And June was green and bright, She came among our mountains, A freak of new delight; Provokingly our banner Salutes with Dixie's strain, -- Little rebel from Savannah, Three Colonels in her train. Three bearded Puritan colonels: But O her eyes, her mouth -- Magnolias in their languor And sorcery of the South. High-handed rule of beauty, Are wars for man but vain? Behold, three disenslavers Themselves embrace a chain! But, loveliest invader, Out of Dixie did ye rove By sallies of your raillery To rally us, or move? For under all your merriment There lurked a minor tone; And of havoc we had tidings And a roof-tree overthrown. Ah, nurtured in the trial -- And ripened by the storm, Was your gaiety your courage, And levity its form? O'er your future's darkling waters, O'er your past, a frozen tide, Like the petrel would you skim it, Like the glancing skater glide? But the ravisher has won her Who the wooers three did slight; To his fastness he has borne her By the trail that leads thro' night. With Peace she came, the rainbow, And like a Bow did pass, The balsam-trees exhaling, And tear-drops in the grass. Now laughed the leafage over Her pranks in woodland scene: Hath left us for the revel Deep in Paradise the green? In truth we will believe it Under pines that sigh a balm, Though o'er thy stone be trailing Cypress-moss that drapes the palm. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A DIM DOORWAY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON LAMENT OF THE FRONTIER GUARD by LI PO SHADOWS IN THE WATER by THOMAS TRAHERNE QUATRAIN: HERRICK by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH VERSES: THE FOURTH BOY by JOHN BYROM DEATH (IN MEMORIAM MAGGIE MEAGHER) by GEORGE FREDERICK CAMERON |