Page:Poems Larcom.djvu/155

All returns;—your word, your look,
 As we stood where now I stand:—
With a dread I could not brook,
Well I knew my faint voice shook,
 While you held my hand.

Firm you always were, and then
 High resolve had made you strong.
Could I bid you linger, when
Freedom called aloud for men
 To requite her wrong?

Southrons threw their gauntlet-lie
 In the face of God and Truth.
"Go, for love's sake!" was my cry;
"Were not Truth more dear than I,
 Thou wert naught, in sooth!"

And you went. The whole year through,
 I have felt war's thunder-quake
Rend me hour by hour anew:
Yet I would not call for you,
 Though my heart should break.