O the drum! <br />There is some <br />Intonation in thy grum <br />Monotony of utterance that strikes the spirit dumb, <br />As we hear <br />Through the clear <br />And unclouded atmosphere, <br />Thy palpitating syllables roll in upon the car! <br /> <br />There's a part <br />Of the art <br />Of thy music-throbbing heart <br />That thrills a something in us that awakens with a start, <br />And in rhyme <br />With the chime <br />And exactitude of time, <br />Goes marching on to glory to thy melody sublime. <br /> <br />And the guest <br />Of the breast <br />That thy rolling robs of rest <br />Is a patriotic spirit as a Continental dressed; <br />And he looms <br />From the glooms <br />Of a century of tombs, <br />And the blood he spilled at Lexington in living beauty blooms. <br /> <br />And his eyes <br />Wear the guise <br />Of a purpose pure and wise, <br />As the love of them is lifted to a something in the skies <br />That is bright <br />Red and white, <br />With a blur of starry light, <br />As it laughs in silken ripples to the breezes day and night. <br /> <br />There are deep <br />Hushes creep <br />O'er the pulses as they leap, <br />As thy tumult, fainter growing, on the silence falls asleep, <br />While the prayer <br />Rising there <br />Wills the sea and earth and air <br />As a heritage to Freedom's sons and daughters everywhere. <br /> <br />Then, with sound <br />As profound <br />As the thunderings resound, <br />Come thy wild reverberations in a throe that shakes the ground, <br />And a cry <br />Flung on high, <br />Like the flag it flutters by, <br />Wings rapturously upward till it nestles in the sky. <br /> <br />O the drum! <br />There is some <br />Intonation in thy grum <br />Monotony of utterance that strikes the spirit dumb, <br />As we hear <br />Through the clear <br />And unclouded atmosphere, <br />Thy palpitating syllables roll in upon the ear!<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-drum-2/
