• I see before me now a travelling army halting,
    Below a fertile valley spread, with barns and the orchards of summer,
    Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain, abrupt, in places rising high,
    Broken, with rocks, with clinging cedars, with tall shapes dingily seen,
    The numerous camp-fires scattered near and far, some away up on the mountain,
    The shadowy...

  • The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat
      The soldier’s last tattoo;
    No more on Life’s parade shall meet
      That brave and fallen few.
    On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
      Their silent tents are spread,
    And Glory guards, with solemn round,
      The bivouac of the dead.

    No rumor of the foe’s advance
      Now swells upon the wind;...

  •    [Dedication of a monument to Kentucky volunteers, killed at Buena Vista, Mexico]

    THE MUFFLED drum’s sad roll has beat
      The soldier’s last tattoo;
    No more on Life’s parade shall meet
      That brave and fallen few.
    On Fame’s eternal camping-ground
      Their silent tents are spread,
    And Glory guards, with solemn round,
      The bivouac...