Poems : patriotic, religious, miscellaneous / by Abram J. Ryan [electronic text]

OLD TREES.

Old trees! old trees! in your mystic gloom There's many a warrior laid, And many a nameless and lonely tomb Is sheltered beneath your shade. Old trees! old trees! without pomp or prayer We buried the brave and the true, We fired a volley and left them there To rest, old trees, with you.

Old trees, old trees! keep watch and ward Over each grass-grown bed; 'Tis a glory, old trees, to stand as guard Over the Southern dead;

Old trees, old trees! we shall pass away Like the leaves you yearly shed, But ye! lone sentinels, still must stay, Old trees, to guard "our dead."