Change is the order of the universe. Worlds wax and wane; suns die and stars are born. Two atoms of cosmic dust unite, cohere And lo the building of a world begun....
On they ride on they ride Only three hundred, Ride the brave Body-Guard, From the "Prairie Scouts" sundered: Two thousand riflemen, Ambushed on either side, The signal of slaughter bide:...
Our columns are broken, defeated, and fled; We are gathered, a few from the flying and dead, Where the green flag is up and our wounded remain Imploring for water and groaning in pain....
Frail are the best of us, brothers God's charity cover us all Yet we ask for perfection in others, And scoff when they stumble and fall. Shall we give him a fish or a serpent...
Chickadee, chickadee, chickadee-dee! That was the song that he sang to me Sang from his perch in the willow tree Chickadee, chickadee, chickadee-dee. My little brown bird, The song that I heard...
Ready and ripe for the harvest lay the acres of golden grain Waving on hillock and hillside and bending along the plain. Ready and ripe for the harvest two veteran armies lay...
With sable wings wide o'er the land night sprinkles the dew of the heavens; And hard by the dark river's strand, in the midst of a tall, somber forest, Two camp fires are lighted and beam...
Dead? or is it a dream Only the voice of a dream? Dead in the prime of his years, And laid in the lap of the dust; Only a handful of ashes Moldering down into dust.
Now a light rustling wind from the South shakes his wings o'er the wide, wimpling waters: Up the dark-winding river DuLuth follows fast in the wake of Tamd'ka. On the slopes of the emerald shores...