THE SOUTHERN SOLDIER BOY. Poet's Corner.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 356, 13 February 1880, Page 9

THE SOUTHERN SOLDIER BOY.

Poet's Corner.

BY REV. A. J. HYAN.

Young as tie youngest who denned the gray, True as the truest that wore it — Brave as ihe bravest, he marched away, (Hot tears on the cheeks of his mother lay) Triumphant waved our flag one day, He full in the front before it. Firm as the fijmest where duty led, He hurried without a falter ; Bold as the boldest he fought and bled, And the day was won— but the field was red, And the blood of his fresh young heart was shed On bis country's hallowed altar. On the trampled breast of the battle plain, Where the foremost ranks had wrestled. On his pale pure face not a mark of pain, (His mother dreams they will meet again,) 'Jhe fairest form amid all the slain, Like a child asleep — he nestled. ]n Ihc fiokmn shades of the woods that swept Tl-c Held whetc his comrades found him, 'Jhey buried him tbcic— and the licit tears ciept In strong men's eyes that had seldom wept. (His mother — God pity her — smiled aud slep 1 , Dreaming her arms were around him.) A giave iv the woods vilb the giasso'crgrown A giavc in the bcait of bis mother — His clay in the one lies lifeless and lone ; There is not a name, there is not a si one — And only the voice of the wind mnketh moan O'er the grave where never a flower is feticwn, But his memory lives in the other. — American J't/jjcr.