Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Decoration
By Thomas Wentworth Higginson (18231911)’M
Bearing lilies in my hand.
Comrades! in what soldier-grave
Sleeps the bravest of the brave?
With his colors round his breast?
Friendship makes his tomb a shrine;
Garlands veil it; ask not mine.
Bears no roses, wears no wreath;
Yet no heart more high and warm
Ever dared the battle-storm,
In the front of victory,
Never foot had firmer tread
On the field where Hope lay dead,
Where the untended grasses bloom;
And no stone, with feigned distress,
Mocks the sacred loneliness.
Dreams that life could ne’er fulfil,
Here lie buried; here in peace
Wrongs and woes have found release.
Kneeling where a woman lies,
I strew lilies on the grave
Of the bravest of the brave.
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