On The Road To Richmond <br /> <br />Give me angel wing and eye, <br />Give me arm and strength Herculean; <br />With the speed of light I'll fly- <br />Not to yonder bright cerulean. <br />Westward far my flight should be, <br />O'er the wide and wild Atlantic; <br />I the fated land would see <br />Drunk with blood whose sons are frantic. <br /> <br />Horror, fed on carnage, lowers <br />O'er corruption rankly steaming; <br />O'er Virginia's Eden bowers <br />I the fated land would see <br />Drunk with blood whose sons are frantic. <br /> <br />Horror, fed on carnage, lowers <br />O'er corruption rankly steaming; <br />O'er Virginia's Eden bowers <br />Thousand vultures hover screaming. <br /> <br />In one gory mass they lie- <br />Husband, father, son, and lover- <br />Festering 'neath a burning sky, <br />Earth no more her slain can cove <br /> <br />Crippled victims, weak and wan, <br />Back a ghastly tide are flowing; <br />Angel eyes will weep to scan <br />Bootless slaughter o <br /> <br />See, recording angels stand <br />On each side of death's dark portals, <br />Noting with unerring hand <br />Entering hordes of ghastly mortals. <br /> <br />From a cloud-capp'd tower I gaze, <br />From the battle field arising <br />Myriad souls, with dread amaze, <br />I behold-my soul surprising. <br /> <br />Civil War, thou demon fell, <br />Shall thy bloody hand for ever <br />Ring the dreadful tocsin bell? <br />Britain's heart-strings quail and quiver. <br /> <br />War, thou Lernæan hydra dire, <br />I would strangle and uncoil thee; <br />Close thy tracks of blood and fire, <br />Of thy venomed fangs despoil thee. <br /> <br />Through thy Augean stables vile, <br />With long-horded rank pollution, <br />(Heaven my help) I'd pour the while <br />One strong, sweeping, vast ablution. <br /> <br />Father of the waters, flow, <br />Flow each Transatlantic river <br />O'er your land of death and woe- <br />Cleanse her soil of blood for ever. <br /> <br />Time was when we lightly spoke, <br />Smiled at each defeat and blunder; <br />Now, alas! the spell is broke- <br />We can only weep and wonder.<br /><br />Janet Hamilton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-phase-of-the-war-in-america-1864/
