Childless

BY CELE SEALY.

(From the Rochester Union and Advertiser.)

Oh, Seth, art thou willing to say then,

Thou ruest we e’er had a son,

Because be his life lost the day when

The Northmen were beat at Bull Run!

We Ne’re should expect to be basking

Through life beneath skies that are warm;

God wills, and we sin when we’re asking;

“In age, who will temper life’s storm?”

Hush, Seth! Though thy wife, I am older

Than thou, by a number of years,

And surely my heart is not colder

Than thine, nor less bitter my tears.

Yet worse might have happened to Peter

Than death – I, his own mother say

To die for his country were sweeter

Than that he should live to betray!

The hoofs of the Southern war horses

Were stamped on the breasts of the slain,

But, oh, from their sanctified corses

The Northmen have thrice wiped the stain;

Then Seth for our boy “dinna” fret so –

His life met a glorious end;

To help quell the strife let’s regret though,

We have not another to send.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 2