"Unforgotten" by Annie M. Toohey (1907)

Unforgotten.

BY ANNIE M. TOOHEY.

Let their olden flags float in the sunshine,

        Treasures waved by the hands of the brave!

Strew the fairest of flowers around them,

        Aye, to garland their every grave!

Let the world proudly herald their valor,

        And their deeds on the field and the main,

As we linger anigh where they slumber,

        And kneel in their memory again!

Let the dim veil of Time be uplifted

        That enshrouded their glorious years,

Till again we may proudly behold them,

        Aye, but not thro' the falling of tears;

Let us fancy them gathered around us,

        As they used to in youth's happy day,

Ere the heart of our nation in sorrow

        Sadly bled o'er the Blue and the Gray!

Let us dream of the glow of the campfires,

        And the songs of old comrades again

That re-echoed ere death's cruel havoc

        Shadowed many a red battle plain;

Let us picture them only as living

        Where peacefully onward they tread,

Far away from the chill of the trenches,

        And the waves that surge over the dead!

Let us hearken for coming of angels,

        'Mid the rustle of wings as the night

Softly covers the flowers we scattered

        Ere the day hid its rapturous light;

Let us turn to the starry paths yonder

        Where the beautiful souls of the brave

Linger for us at threshold of glory,

        Far away from the gloom of the grave.

Troy Times. May 30, 1907: 3 col 1.