THE BLUE AND THE GRAY FRANCIS MILES FINCH THESE tender lines were written in 1867 by Judge Finch, a resident of New York State. The heart of the country, yet torn and bleeding as a result of the war just closed, was softened by the fast-spreading news that, on Decoration Day of that year the women of Columbus, Mississippi, had strewn flowers "Alike for the friend and the foe" on the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers. If the women of the Southland, in the anguish of defeat, could forgive, who could longer cherish bitterness and hatred? Judge Finch seized upon the suggestion of this beautiful deed of the southern women and wrote this poem, so full of tenderness and forgiveness, which made the chords that were broken vibrate once more, for he says, "They banish our anger forever, when they laurel the graves of our dead." Victor and vanquished clasped hands across the chasm, and all bitterness of heart was dissolved in a deluge of "love and tears." THE BLUE AND THE GRAY Under the one, the Blue, Under the other, the Gray. These in the robings of glory, From the silence of sorrowful hours Lovingly laden with flowers Alike for the friend and the foe: So, with an equal splendor, So, when the summer calleth, Sadly, but not with upbraiding, Under the sod and the dew, No more shall the war-cry sever, When they laurel the graves of our dead! SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES 1. Who were the "Blue"? The "Gray"? Why so called? 2. Explain clearly the meaning of the first two lines. 3. What connection between "robings of glory" and "laurel" in the second stanza? Between "gloom of defeat" and "willow"? 4. What is the significance of "roses" and "lilies" in the third stanza? 5. What was the "touch impartially tender”? 6. How do the last two lines of the stanza show this? 7. What was "the storm of the years that are fading"? 8. Explain fully, "No braver battle was won." 9. What do you think prompted the women of the South to do this "generous deed"? 10. What does the poet declare was accomplished for the whole country by it? REFERENCES LINCOLN: Gettysburg Address. CARLETON: Cover Them Over. To the Unknown Dead. United at Last. FIELD: Soldier, Maiden, and Flower. MAURICE THOMPSON: A Prophecy. PAINE: The New Memorial Day. READ: The Brave at Home. KNOX: Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud? BEN WOOD DAVIS: Decoration Ode. TIMROD: At Magnolia Cemetery. T. W. HIGGINSON: Decoration. KATE OSGOOD: Driving Home the Cows. JOHN R. THOMPSON: Music in Camp. RUPERT HUGHES: For Decoration Days. LOWELL: Centennial Hymn. TENNYSON: Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead. THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET The poetry of earth is never dead! When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, With his delights, for when tired out with fun The poetry of earth is ceasing never. On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills The cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, The grasshopper's among some grassy hills. -John Keats. "TH BREAK, BREAK, BREAK ALFRED TENNYSON HIS melody of tears," says Tennyson, "was made in a Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the morning, between blossoming hedges," but the poet's thoughts were far away at Clevedon, where the body of his beloved friend, Arthur Hallam, lay buried by the sea. With heart grief-crushed, he hears in fancy the slow, measured "swish," "swish," "swish," of the waves as they beat upon the shore. Above the dull, monotonous pulse-beats of the sea, he hears the glad shouts of children and the song of the sailor lad. But the waves of unutterable grief beat in upon his breaking heart, and the sad, low music of the sea is given soul and voice in the beautiful melody. BREAK, BREAK, BREAK Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O sea! And I would that my tongue could utter O well for the fisherman's boy, That he shouts with his sister at play! That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill; |