George Henry Boker (1823–1890)

BRAVE comrade, answer! When you joined the war,

What left you? “Wife and children, wealth and friends,

A storied home whose ancient roof-tree bends

Above such thoughts as love tells o’er and o’er.”

Had you no pang or struggle? “Yes; I bore

Such pain on parting as at hell’s gate rends

The entering soul, when from its grasp ascends

The last faint virtue which on earth it wore.”

You loved your home, your kindred, children, wife;

You loathed yet plunged into war’s bloody whirl!—

What urged you? “Duty! Something more than life.

That which made Abraham bare the priestly knife,

And Isaac kneel, or that young Hebrew girl

Who sought her father coming from the strife.”