He came in victory's lambent flame <br />'Mid myriad shouts and trumpets' blare, <br />While the glad people's loud acclaim <br />Made vocal all the summer air. <br /> <br />But while the cannon's thunder boomed <br />Half-heard amid the loyal cry, <br />And starry banners glowed and bloomed <br />In beauty neath that western sky, <br /> <br />He from the highway turned apart <br />And to a quiet nook drew near, <br />The dearest pulses of his heart <br />Beating the question, "Is she here?" <br /> <br />The glory well and hardly earned <br />In civic toil and battle's fire <br />Was all forgotten as he turned <br />To meet his human heart's desire. <br /> <br />And light as dust lay in the scale <br />The favor of a flattering world <br />Weighed by that joy which cannot fail <br />In love and faith and honor furled. <br /> <br />Like fire within the opal's heart, <br />Like fragrance in the rose's breast, <br />A sacred joy, serene, apart, <br />The highest and the holiest.<br /><br />John Hay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/is-she-here/
