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IX.

Love's grey eyes glow with a heaven-heat,
Love lifts his hand in a saintly prayer;
Look! Hate hath fallen at his feet!

Look! Hate hath vanished in the air!

X.

Then all the throng looked kind on all;

Eyes yearned, lips kissed, dumb souls were freed; Two magic maids' hands lifted a pall

And the dead knight, Heart, sprang on his steed.

XI.

Then Love cried, "Break me his lance, each knight!

Ye shall fight for blood-athirst Fame no more!"

And the knights all doffed their mailèd might
And dealt out dole on dole to the poor.

XII.

Then dove-flights sanctified the plain,

And hawk and sparrow shared a nest.
And the great sea opened and swallowed Pain,
And out of this water-grave floated Rest!

MACON, GEORGIA, 1865.

THE DYING WORDS OF STONEWALL JACKSON.

"Order A. P. Hill to prepare for battle."

"Tell Major Hawks to advance the Commissary train.”
"Let us cross the river and rest in the shade."

THE stars of Night contain the glittering Day
And rain his glory down with sweeter grace
Upon the dark World's grand, enchanted face-
All loth to turn away.

And so the Day, about to yield his breath,
Utters the stars unto the listening Night,
To stand for burning fare-thee-wells of light
Said on the verge of death.

O hero-life that lit us like the sun!

O hero-words that glittered like the stars
And stood and shone above the gloomy wars
When the hero-life was done!

The phantoms of a battle came to dwell
I' the fitful vision of his dying eyes—
Yet even in battle-dreams, he sends supplies
To those he loved so well.

His army stands in battle-line arrayed :

His couriers fly: all's done now God decide!
-And not till then saw he the Other Side

Or would accept the shade.

Thou Land whose sun is gone, thy stars remain !
Still shine the words that miniature his deeds.
O thrice-beloved, where'er thy great heart bleeds,
Solace hast thou for pain!

GEORGIA, September, 1865.

TO WILHELMINA.

A WHITE face, drooping, on a bending neck:
A tube-rose that with heavy petal curves
Her stem: a foam-bell on a wave that swerves
Back from the undulating vessel's deck.

From out the whitest cloud of summer steals
The wildest lightning: from this face of thine
Thy soul, a fire-of-heaven, warm and fine,
In marvellous flashes its fair self reveals.

As when one gazes from the summer sea

On some far gossamer cloud, with straining eye,
Fearing to see it vanish in the sky,

So, floating, wandering Cloud-Soul, I watch thee.

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, 1866.

WEDDING-HYMN.

THOU God, whose high, eternal Love
Is the only blue sky of our life,
Clear all the Heaven that bends above
The life-road of this man and wife.

May these two lives be but one note

In the world's strange-sounding harmony,
Whose sacred music e'er shall float
Through every discord up to Thee.

As when from separate stars two beams
Unite to form one tender ray:
As when two sweet but shadowy dreams
Explain each other in the day :

So may these two dear hearts one light
Emit, and each interpret each.
et an angel come and dwell to-night
In this dear double-heart, and teach!

MACON, GEORGIA, September, 1865.

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