Apathy and Enthusiasm II

So the winter died despairing,And the weary weeks of Lent;And the ice-bound rivers melted,And the tomb of Faith was rent.O, the rising of the PeopleCame with springing of the grass,They rebounded from dejectionAnd Easter came to pass.And the young were all elationHearing Sumter’s cannon roar,And they thought how tame the NationIn the age that went before.And Michael seemed gigantical,The Arch-fiend but a dwarf;And at the towers of ErebusOur striplings flung the scoff.But the elders with forebodingMourned the days forever o’er,And re called the forest proverb,The Iroquois’ old saw:Grief to every graybeardWhen young Indians lead the war.

The March into Virginia,Ending in the First Manassas.(July, 1861.)

Did all the lets and bars appearTo every just or larger end,Whence should come the trust and cheer?Youth must its ignorant impulse lend--Age finds place in the rear.All wars are boyish, and are fought by boys,The champions and enthusiasts of the state:Turbid ardors and vain joysNot barrenly abate--Stimulants to the power mature,Preparatives of fate.

Who here forecasteth the event?What heart but spurns at precedentAnd warnings of the wise,Contemned foreclosures of surprise?

The banners play, the bugles call,The air is blue and prodigal.No berrying party, pleasure-wooed,No picnic party in the May,Ever went less loth than theyInto that leafy neighborhood.In Bacchic glee they file toward Fate,Moloch’s uninitiate;Expectancy, and glad surmiseOf battle’s unknown mysteries.All they feel is this: ’tis glory,A rapture sharp, though transitory,Yet lasting in belaureled story.So they gayly go to fight,Chatting left and laughing right.

But some who this blithe mood present,As on in lightsome files they fare,Shall die experienced ere three days are spent--Perish, enlightened by the vollied glare;Or shame survive, and, like to adamant,The throe of Second Manassas share.