A NATIONAL POEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 14 September 1907, Page 3

A NATIONAL POEM.

In connection with the United States' solicitude for her "national heroes, the following beautiful poem hag been brought under our notice by Mr W. F. Gordon, to whose memory it was recalled by a paragraph in our issue of August 27 relative to the demise in Auckland of an old veteran who served in the war with Mexico.

THE BURIAL OF THE KENTUCKY

DEAD. Written by Colonel Tb.-wlore O'Hara. was read in Frankfort, Kentucky, at the burial of Major Clay and Col. Hardin, two gallant Kentucky soldiers who fell in the war with Mexico. The four concluding line* of the first verse of the poem have often been quoted, but very few, even of those who make use of them, know from whence they came. Mr Gordon, believe* they are inscriV.i on all public cemeteries in the United Stat**,

The mffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo, No mot* on life's parade shall meet That bnv* and fallen few; On Fams's .eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread, And Glory guards with solemn round The brrauac of the dead.

No rumor of tke foe's advance Now swells upon the wind, No troubled thought-at midnight haunts Of tared ones left behind; No vision of the morrow's strife The varrior'a dream alarms, Nor braying horn nor screaming fife At dawn shall call to arms.

Their shivered swords are red with rust Their plumed heads an bowed, Their haughty banner trailed in dust Is now then- martial shroud; And plenteous funeral tears have wash'd The red stains from each brow, And the proud forms by battle gashed Are free from fpiHi now.

The neighing troop, the flashing blade, The bugle's stirring blast, ° The charge, the dreadful «"mmnto. The din and about are past; Nor Wart wild note nor Glory's peal fchafl thrill with fierce delight Those breasts that nerer more may feel The rapture of the nght.

I&e the fierce northern hurricane That sweep* the broad plateau Flushed with a triumph yet to gain, Came down the serried foe; Our heron felt the shock and left To meet them on the plain, And long the pitying sky hath went Above the gallant slain.

Bom of the "dark and bloody ground," . Ye mutt not slumber here, (sound where stranger steps- and tongues reAloag the heedless air; Your own proud land's heroic sail Shall be your fitter graveShe dates from War his richest spoil The ashes of her brave.

Bo "neath their parent*a tart they rest, Far from the gory field, Borne to a Spartan mother's breast On many a bloody shield; The sunshine of their native sky Sadies sadly en them here, * And kindred eyes and hearts waUk by The hero's sepulchre.

Best on, embalmed and sainted dead, Dear as the blood ye gave, No impious footsteps here shaß tread The herbage of your grave; Nor shall your glory be forgot. While Fame her record keeps, Or Honor points the hallowed spot Where Valor proudly sleeps, '

Yon marble minstrel's voiceiul stone In deathless song shall tell, When many a vanished age hath flown, The story how ye fen. v **!!? nor clttn B e m winter's Wight -Nor Time's remorseless doom, Can dim one ray of holy light That gOds your glorious tomb.