Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf;

She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country's flag," she said.

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word:
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.
All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet:

All day long that free flag tost.
Over the heads of the rebel host.

Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;

And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.

Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,

And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.

Honor to her! and let a tear

Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!

Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;

And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!

LAUS DEO.

103

LAUS DEO.

ON HEARING THE BELLS RING FOR THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

is done!

ITiang of bell and roar of gun

Send the tidings up and down.
How the belfries rock and reel,
How the great guns, peal on peal,
Fling the joy from town to town!
Ring, O bells!

Every stroke exulting tells
Of the burial hour of crime.

Loud and long, that all may hear,
Ring for every listening ear
Of Eternity and Time!

What are we,

That our eyes this glory see,

That our ears have heard the sound!

For the Lord

On the whirlwind is abroad;
In the earthquake he has spoken;
He has smitten with his thunder
The iron walls asunder,

And the gates of brass are broken!

Loud and long

Lift the old exulting song,
Sing with Miriam by the sea:

He has cast the mighty down;
Horse and rider sink and drown;

He has triumphed gloriously!

Did we dare,

In our agony of prayer,

Ask for more than he has done?
When was ever his right hand
Over any time or land

Stretched as now beneath the sun!

How they pale,

Ancient myth, and song, and tale,
In this wonder of our days,

When the cruel rod of war

Blossoms white with righteous law,
And the wrath of man is praise.

Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.

VOICES OF NATURE.

BY

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

With Illustrations.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 90, 92 & 94 GRAND ST.

BOSTON: FIELDS, OSGOOD & CO.

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by

D. APPLETON & CO.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

[These selections from the Poems of Mr. Bryant are made by the publishers to supply a popular demand for the rural poems in a single inexpensive volume.]