Ethel Lynn Eliot Beers Poems

Which shall it be? Which shall it be?
I look'd at John-John look'd at me
(Dear, patient John, who loves me yet
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'All quiet along the Potomac to-night!'
Except here and there a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket.
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'How many pounds does the baby weigh -
Baby who came but a month ago?
How many pounds from the crowning curl
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Left for dead? I - Charlie Coleman,
On the field we won - and lost,
Like a dog; the ditch my death-bed
My pillow but a log across.
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'All quiet along the Potomac to-night!'
Except here and there a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
...

All quiet along the Potomac,' they say,
'Except, now and then, a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket.
'Tis nothing—a private or two now and then
Will not count in the news of the battle;
Not an officer lost—only one of the men
Moaning out all alone the death-rattle.'
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Two little busy hands patting on the window,
Two laughing bright eyes looking out at me;
Two rosy red cheeks dented with a dimple;
Mother-bird is coming; Baby, do you see?
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Whisper softly, stainless Lilies,
As you fold each snowy cup
Over soldiers who are sleep,
With their war-tents folded up.
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Calmer than midnight's deepest hush
Is the sun-bright Summer nooning,
With its cloudy shadows seeking rest,
That fall on the hillside swooning.
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There's a cap in the closet,
Old, tattered, and blue,
That would be little value,
It may be, to you;
But a crown jewel-studded
Could not buy it to-day,
With its letters of honor,
Brave 'Company K.'
...