Chapter I: Front Matter

SOLDIERS OF THE
LIGHT

BY
HELEN GRAY CONE

BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
1911

Copyright, 1910, by Helen Gray Cone

All Rights Reserved

Many of the poems included in this volume are used through the courteous permission of the editors of _The Century Magazine_, _The Churchman_, _The Atlantic Monthly_, and _Scribner’s Magazine_, where they originally appeared.

THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A.

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Soldiers of the Light 5

The Third Day at Gettysburg 7

Abraham Lincoln: February 12, 1909 33

Greencastle Jenny: A Ballad of ’Sixty-Three 38

By the Blockhouse on the Hill: A Ballad of ’Ninety-Eight 40

The Admiral’s Story 42

Death After War 45

The Riddle of Wreck 46

The Common Street 47

Calnan’s Christmas 48

Guion 50

Poverty Row 52

The Inn of the Star 54

Marina Sings 55

The King’s Diamond 58

Death-Tryst 61

The Iris-Bridge 63

Desire of Fame 64

Rose-Rent 65

The Frigate-Ghost 66

Fair England 69

To the Memory of Richard Watson Gilder 71

“_Why of War, O thou that lovest rather
Peace of roses in a rain-sweet garden,
Peace of moonlit silver-heaving waters,
All the lovely looks of little children?
What strange mandate
Bids thee sing of War, who lovest these things?_

“_How of War, O faint-heart, thou that grievest
Over every gentle creature wounded,
All soft eyes of pain and puzzled sorrow,
All the lithe limbs marred, the wild wings broken?
What black magic
Makes thee brood on War, who dreadest these things?_

“_Is it but the haunting of the bugles,
Floating memories of the war-time bugles
Blowing over those far fields of childhood,
Pleasant in the foolish ear of childhood,
When the sword-hilt
Seemed but made to shine and hold a jewel?_”

_Then the inward Voice that gave the mandate,--
Bade me sing of battle,--bade me answer:
Well I know the symbol of the sword-hilt,
Know the Cross of sacrifice and service;
See the heart’s-blood
Burning where the child beheld the jewel._

_I have hated with the perfect hatred
All the work of Hell in all the ages;
Hated all the hate and all the horror;
Yet the Vision of the Face of faces,
God-in-Manhood,
Shines through Hell, and I have seen the Vision._

_In this rubric, lo, the Past is lettered:
Strike the red words out, we strike the glory.
Leave the sacred color on the pages,
Pages of the Past that teach the Future.
On that scripture
Yet shall young souls take the oath of service._

_God end War! but when brute War is ended,
Yet there shall be many a noble soldier,
Many a noble battle worth the winning,
Many a hopeless battle worth the losing.
Life is battle,
Life is battle, even to the sunset._

_Soldiers of the Light shall strive forever,
In the wards of pain, the ways of labor,
In the stony deserts of the city,
In the hives where greed has housed the helpless;
Patient, valiant,
Fighting with the powers of death and darkness._

_Make us mingle in that heavenly warfare;
Call us through the throats of all brave bugles
Blown on fields foregone by lips forgotten;
Nerve us with the courage of lost comrades,
Gird us, lead us,
Thou, O Prince of Peace and God of Battles!_

THE THIRD DAY AT GETTYSBURG