The Flag on Fortress Monroe: To the Four Winds 1864

THE stars of destiny are mine,
The Belle Dame Sans Merci,
What news, what news, my vassal winds
Bring ye by land and sea?

What ho! thou lusty Admiral
From East across the deep,
How fare my wave-borne lovers
Who swore their tryst to keep?

‘I heard their cannon thunder
Along the English shore.
The pirate foe of peaceful ships
Shall haunt the sea no more.’

Fresh from my eagle’s eyrie
Come, gallant west wind, come;
Hast heard the tramp of armies,
The war roll of the drum?

‘Lo! Mistress sweet and fatal
Beloved of daring souls
From lake to gulf unfettered
Thy lordly river rolls.

‘And thine the death-bought summit
Where brothers met and bled;
Oh! Lady of the fateful stars
Weep! Weep! thy lovers dead.’

Ho! loitering southern breezes
What news for me to-day?
Still rings the clash of battle
Between the blue and gray?

‘Belle Dame, ah, Belle, Sans Merci,
Death Mistress, proud and gay,
We lingered o’er the leaguer
For those you loved to pray.’

Ho, herald of the Northland,
Of granite and of pine,
What news from waiting homesteads
To greet these stars of mine?

‘I heard a moan of sorrow
Along the rock-mailed shore,
The sob of maid and mother
For those who come no more.’

Tears, for the brave who loved me,
Tears, tears for those who died
That o’er a land unbroken
Should float my bannered pride.

Ye comrade stars of heaven,
Look down on those I led
To rest ’neath southern roses,
My knighthood of the dead.