December 7th - A poem by A. A. B. Cavaness

December 7th.

TO CAPTAIN MARCUS D. TENNEY.
MY Captain, when the mighty whirl returns
   This day, marked red on that dire calendar
   When Freedom's flag refused to drop a star,
I tread again the vale^___again it burns
   With battle's fire. Your voice as made for war^___
Outsounding bugles^___wheels the grimy guns,
And from their thunderous mouths the lightning runs;
   The smoke hides all, through which anear and far
Flash demon eyes. The shout of onset thrills
Hero and coward. Life and death^___God's mills
   That grind souls fine^___with dread machinery
Struggle together; both combat the sun;
The darkness falls; the day of glory's done^___
   And Death doth shock the night with victory.

^__A. A. B. Cavaness.

Poems by Two Brothers
A. A. B. Cavaness & J. M. Cavaness
(Chetopa: J. M. Cavaness and Son. 1896)
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