Yes! raise me on your arm, Dick Dale, <br />My comrade old and true. <br />And let me of the glad earth take <br />One last and lingering view. <br />When yet a few brief moments more <br />Of this flittering hour have fled, <br />You’ll shed an old friend's tear, Dick Dale, <br />Above your comrade's head. <br /> <br />We fought together, side by side, <br />In many a bloody fray, <br />From Malvern Hill's dark hour of strife, <br />To fierce Antietam's day. <br />And when again the 'long roll' calls, <br />For battle to prepare, <br />You will not fail the flag, Dick Dale, <br />But I shall not be there. <br /> <br />You will not soon forget me, Dick! <br />I know it by that sigh; <br />I know it by those tears that shine <br />In your half averted eye. <br />But my dear old comrade's heart will swell, <br />I know with honest pride, <br />When he thinks that for the grand old flag, <br />His old companion died. <br /> <br />Cut off this light brown lock, Dick Dale, <br />For the girl that waits at home. <br />Yes! Hoping waits her soldier love, <br />Who never more can come. <br />'Twill soothe perhaps her bleeding heart <br />To know that watched by you, <br />The boy she loved, at least has died, <br />With one who loved him too. <br /> <br />You'll visit all the quaint old nooks <br />We sought when we were boys, <br />And thoughts of me will come, Dick Dale, <br />With thoughts of childhood's joys; <br />And when you reach the old playground <br />Where once you used to play, <br />You’ll not forget your friend, Dick Dale, <br />In his lone grave far away.<br /><br />Anonymous Americas<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-dying-soldier/
