The Magnolia Cemetry Ode
(Henry Timrod)
Sleep sweetly in you humble graves
Sleep marthirs of a fallen cause
Though yet no marble column craves
The pilgrim here to pause.
In seeds of laurel in the earth
The blossom of your fame is blown
And somewhere, waiting for its birth
The shaft is in the stone
Meanwhile, behalf the tardy years
Which keep in trust your storied tombs
Behold! your sister bring their tears
And these memorial blooms
Small tributes! but your shades will smile
More proudly on these wreaths today
Than when some cannon-moulded pile
Shall overlook this bay.
Stoop angels, hither from the skies!
There is no holier spot of ground
Than where defeated valor lies,
By morning beauty crowned!