A sudden shock which shook the earth, 'mid vapor dense and dun, Proclaim'd, along the echoing hills, the conflict had begun; While shot and shell athwart the stream with fiendish fury sped, To strew among the living lines the dying and the dead! Then, louder than the roaring storm, peal'd forth the stern command, "Charge! soldiers, charge!" and, at the word, with shouts, a fearless band, Two hundred heroes from Vermont, rush'd onward, through the flood, And upward o'er the rising ground they mark'd their way in blood! The smitten foe before them fled, in terror, from his postWhile, unsustained, two hundred stood, to battle with a host! Then, turning, as the rallying ranks with murderous fire, replied, They bore the fallen o'er the field, and through the purple tide! The fallen! And the first who fell in that unequal strife Was he whom Mercy sped to save when Justice claim'd his life The pardon'd soldier! And, while yet the conflict raged around While yet his life-blood ebb'd away through every gaping wound While yet his voice grew tremulous, and death bedimm'd his eye He call'd his comrades to attest he had not fear'd to die! And, in his last expiring breath, a prayer to Heaven was sent That God, with His unfailing grace, would bless our President! U BARBARA FRIETCHIE. P from the meadows rich with corn, The cluster'd spires of Frederick stand, 1 Round about them orchards sweep, Fair as a garden of the Lord, To the eyes of the famish'd rebel horde, On that pleasant morn of the early Fall, When Lee march'd over the mountain wall, Over the mountains winding down, Forty flags with their silver stars, Flapp'd in the morning wind: the sun Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then, Bravest of all in Frederick town, She took up the flag the men haul'd down. In her attic window the staff she set, Up the street came the rebel tread, Under his slouch'd hat left and right "Halt!"-the dust-brown ranks stood fast; "Fire!"-out blazed the rifle blast. It shiver'd the window pane and sash, Quick, as it fell from the broken staff, She lean'd far out on the window sill, "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said. A shade of sadness, a blush of shame The nobler nature within him stirr'd "Who touches a hair of yon gray head Dies like a dog! March on!" he said. All day long through Frederick street All day long that free flag toss'd Ever its torn folds rose and fell And, through the hill-gaps, sunset light Shone over it with a warm good-night. Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er, And the rebel rides on his raids no more. Honor to her! and let a tear Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier. Over Barbara Frietchie's grave, Peace and order and beauty draw And ever the stars above look down ONCE THE RAVEN. NCE upon a midnight dreary, while I ponder'd, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten loreWhile I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber-door. "'Tis some visitor," I mutter'd, "tapping at my chamber-doorOnly this, and nothing more." Ah! distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrill'd me filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating, ""Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber-door · Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber-door: That it is, and nothing more." Presently my soul grew stronger: hesitating then no longer, Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whisper'd word, "Lenore!" This I whisper'd, and an echo murmur'd back the word, "LENORE!" Merely this, and nothing more. Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, Soon again I heard a tapping, something louder than before. "Surely," said I, "surely there is something at my window-lattice; Let me see then what thereat is, and this mystery explore — Let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore: 'Tis the wind, and nothing more." Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perch'd above my chamber-doorPerch'd upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber-doorPerched and sat, and nothing more. Then, this ebon bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, “art sure no craven; Ghastly, grim, and ancient raven, wandering from the nightly shore, Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore?" Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!" Much I marvell'd this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only before: On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore!" Startled at the stillness, broken by reply so aptly spoken, "Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store, |