How the winters are drifting like flakes of snow, With the summers like buds between; And the years in their sheaves-how they come and they go There's a magical isle up the River of Time, And the name of the isle is the Long Ago, There's a fragment of song that nobody sings, There's a lute unswept and a harp without strings, And the fragrance she used to wear. There are hands that are waved when the fairy shore And we sometimes hear through the turbulent roar Oh, remembered for aye be that beautiful isle And when evening comes with her beautiful smile, THE JACKET OF GRAY By MRS. CAROLINE A. BALL [The author of these popular lines was a native of South Carolina. Her poem was first published in 'The Jacket of Gray, and Other Fugitive Poems,' Charleston, 1866.] Fold it up carefully, lay it aside; Tenderly touch it, look on it with pride; Can we ever forget when he joined the brave band His fond mother blessed him, and looked up above, Months passed, and war's thunders rolled over the land, Ah vain, all in vain were our prayers and our tears, His young comrades found him and tenderly bore Ah! spotted and tattered and stained now with gore, And replaced with death's white robe the jacket of gray. ! We laid him to rest in his cold narrow bed, Then fold it up carefully, lay it aside, The jacket of gray our loved soldier-boy wore. A KENTUCKIAN KNEELS TO NONE BUT GOD By MRS. MORGAN L. BETTS [Colonel William Logan Crittenden, of Kentucky, was executed by the Cubans, August 16, 1851. As the leader of his band he was shot first, but refused to kneel, saying, "A Kentuckian kneels to none except his God, and always dies facing the enemy." Mrs. Betts's lines were first published in The Maysville Flag, of Maysville, Kentucky. They have been republished in Collins's 'History of Kentucky' (1882), Mrs. Fannie Porter Dickey's 'Blades o' Bluegrass' (1892), A. C. Quisenberry's 'Lopez's Expedition to Cuba, 1850-1851' (1906), and John Wilson Townsend's 'Kentuckians in History and Literature' (1907). "Although not the best poem of this forgotten Kentucky singer," says Mr. Townsend, “it is the most popular one, and upon it her fame will rest."] Ah! tyrants forge your chains at will- Yet, thought is free, unfettered still, And will not yield to thine! Take, take the life that Heaven gave, And let my heart's blood stain thy sod. But know ye not Kentucky's brave Will kneel to none but God? You've quenched fair freedom's sunny light, Her music tones have stilled, And with a deep and darkened blight, The trusting heart have filled! Then do you think that I will kneel Nay! point your cold and threatening steel- As summer breezes lightly rest Upon a quiet river, And gently on its sleeping breast The moonbeams softly quiver Sweet thoughts of home light up my brow Yet, these cannot unman me now- And tho' a sad and mournful tone Is coldly sweeping by ; And dreams of bliss forever flown LAFAYETTE By DOLLY MADISON [This sonnet has been recently discovered. It is reproduced in Burton Egbert Stevenson's 'Poems of American History.' Boston, 1908.] Born, nurtured, wedded, prized, within the pale Straight quitting all, across the wave he flies, Aids with his sword, wealth, blood, the high emprize! Then comes for fifty years a high romance LORENA [The author of this song was not a Southerner, but few songs are more intimately associated with Confederate camp life. See the history of "Lorena" in Bob Taylor's Magazine, June, 1906.] The years creep slowly by, Lorena; The snow is on the grass again; The frost gleams where the flowers have been. But the heart throbs on as warmly now As when the summer days were nigh; A hundred months have passed, Lorena, Though mine beat faster far than thine, And hear the distant church bells chimed. We loved each other then, Lorena, I'll not call up their shadowy forms; I'll say to them, Lost years, sleep on, The story of the past, Lorena, Alas! I care not to repeat; They touched some tender chords, Lorena, I would not cause e'en one regret To rankle in your bosom now"For if we try we may forget,' Were words of thine long years ago. |