Dixie

Southrons, hear your Country call you!
Up, lest worse than death befall you!
To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!
Lo! all the beacon-fires are lighted,

Let all hearts be now united !

To arms! To arms! To arms! in Dixie!
Advance the flag of Dixie!
Hurrah! hurrah!

For Dixie's land we 'll take our stand,

To live or die for Dixie!

To arms! To arms!

And conquer peace for Dixie!
To arms! To arms!

And conquer peace for Dixie!

Hear the Northern thunders mutter!
Northern flags in South winds flutter!
Send them back your fierce defiance!
Stamp upon the accursed alliance!

Fear no danger! Shun no labor!
Lift up rifle, pike, and sabre!
Shoulder pressing close to shoulder,
Let the odds make each heart bolder!

How the South's great heart rejoices
At your cannons' ringing voices!
For faith betrayed and pledges broken,
Wrongs inflicted, insults spoken.

Strong as lions, swift as eagles,
Back to their kennels hunt these beagles!
Cut the unequal bonds asunder!

Let them hence each other plunder!

Swear upon your Country's altar
Never to submit or falter,

Till the spoilers are defeated,
Till the Lord's work is completed.

Halt not till our Federation

Secures among earth's Powers its station! Then at peace, and crowned with glory, Hear your children tell the story!

If the loved ones weep in sadness,
Victory soon shall bring them gladness;
To arms!

Exultant pride soon banish sorrow,

Smiles chase tears away to-morrow.

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie! Advance the flag of Dixie!

Hurrah! hurrah!

For Dixie's land we take our stand,

And live or die for Dixie!

To arms! To arms!

And conquer peace for Dixie!

To arms! To arms!

And conquer peace for Dixie!

Milton's Prayer of Patience

I am old and blind!

Men point at me as smitten by God's frown;
Afflicted and deserted of my kind,

Yet am I not cast down.

I am weak, yet strong;

I murmur not that I no longer see;
Poor, old, and helpless, I the more belong,
Father Supreme! to Thee.

All-merciful One!

When men are furthest, then art Thou most near, When friends pass by, my weaknesses to shun, Thy chariot I hear.

Thy glorious face

Is leaning toward me, and its holy light
Shines in upon my lonely dwelling-place,-
And there is no more night.

On my bended knee

I recognize Thy purpose clearly shown;
My vision Thou hast dimmed, that I may see
Thyself Thyself alone.

I have naught to fear:

This darkness is the shadow of Thy wing;
Beneath it I am almost sacred-here

Can come no evil thing.

Oh, I seem to stand

Trembling, where foot of mortal ne'er hath been, Wrapped in that radiance from the sinless land, Which eye hath never seen!

Visions come and go:

Shapes of resplendent beauty round me throng;
From angel lips I seem to hear the flow
Of soft and holy song.

It is nothing now,

When heaven is opening on my sightless eyes,
When airs from Paradise refresh my brow,
That earth in darkness lies.

In a purer clime

My being fills with rapture,-waves of thought
Roll in upon my spirit,-strains sublime
Break over me unsought.

Give me now my lyre!

I feel the stirrings of a gift divine:
Within my bosom glows unearthly fire
Lit by no skill of mine.

A Winter Wish

Old wine to drink!

Ay, give the slippery juice

That drippeth from the grape thrown loose

Within the tun;

Plucked from beneath the cliff

Of sunny-sided Teneriffe,

And ripened 'neath the blink

Of India's sun!

Peat whiskey hot,

Tempered with well-boiled water!
These make the long night shorter,—
Forgetting not

Good stout old English porter.

Old wood to burn!

Ay, bring the hillside beech

From where the owlets meet and screech,

And ravens croak;

The crackling pine, and cedar sweet;

Bring too a clump of fragrant peat,

Dug 'neath the fern;

The knotted oak,

A fagot too, perhap,

Whose bright flame, dancing, winking,

Shall light us at our drinking;

While the oozing sap

Shall make sweet music to our thinking.