POEMS OF JAMES RYDER RANDALL
THE UNCONQUERED BANNER
“A Lost Cause!” If lost, it was false; if true, it is not lost. If the Cause is lost, the Constitution is lost; the Union, defined by it is lost; the liberty of the States and the people, which they both at first and for half a century guarded, are lost.”—Henry A. Wise.
“Yet, Freedom yet, thy banner, torn though flying,
Streams, like a thunderstorm, against the wind.”
The sad priest-singer, in his dread despair,
When our war-trumpets ceased their charging blare,
Wailed, in melodious numbers, o’er the South,
Her righteous Cause crushed at the cannon-mouth.
He bade us fold our banner and for aye,
Because its night had come and not one ray
Of hope remained to gild its glorious head,
And that it typified the hopeless dead.
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