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
The Stab
By William Wallace Harney (18311912)O
Under the cold white moon,
Under the ragged trees he strode;
He whistled and shifted his weary load—
Whistled a foolish tune.
A figure that stooped and bowed—
A cold, white blade that gleamed and shone,
Like a splinter of daylight downward thrown—
And the moon went behind a cloud.
The barn-fowl woke and crowed;
Then roughed his feathers in drowsy mood,
And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood,
That a dead man lay on the road.