"A Tribute" by Annie M. Toohey (1904)

A Tribute.

BY ANNIE M. TOOHEY.

Let us cover their rusty old sabres

        'Neath the radiant flowers of May,

And hide all the stains of the banners

        That wave o'er their ashes to-day;

As the angel of rest spreads her pinions

        Softly over wherever they sleep,

On the beautiful shrines of the hillside

        Or under the waves of the deep.

Far beyond the red fields of the battle,

        And the chill of the trenches afar,

Peace hath hidden their death-wounds forever

        And glorified every scar.

Where the tablets of Heaven recorded

        Not alone the brave deeds of a fray,

But the crowing of souls undivided

        From the ranks of our lost Blue and Gray.

Troy Times. May 30, 1904: 7 col 2.