The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems by Hanford Lennox Gordon ADDRESS TO THE FLAG [After the Battle of Gettysburg.] Float in the winds of heaven, O tattered Flag!Emblem of hope to all the misruled world: Thy field of golden stars is rent and red-Dyed in the blood of brothers madly spilledBy brother-hands upon the mother-soil.O fatal Upas of the savage Nile, Transplanted hither-rooted-multiplied-Watered with bitter tears and sending forthThy venom-vapors till the land is mad, Thy day is done. A million blades are swungTo lay thy jungles open to the sun;A million torches fire thy blasted boles;A million hands shall drag thy fibers outAnd feed the fires till every root and branchLie in dead ashes. From the blackened soil, Enriched and moistened with fraternal blood, Beside the palm shall spring the olive-tree, And every breeze shall waft the happy songOf Freedom crowned with olive-twigs and flowers. Yea, Patriot-Flag of our old patriot-sires, Honored-victorious on an hundred fieldsWhere side by side for Freedom's mother-landHer Southern sons and Northern fighting fell, And side by side in glorious graves repose, I see the dawn of glory grander still, When hand in hand upon this battle-fieldThe blue-eyed maidens of the MerrimacWith dewy roses from the Granite Hills, And dark-eyed daughters from the land of palmsWith orange-blossoms from the broad St. Johns, In solemn concert singing as they go, Shall strew the graves of these fraternal dead.The day of triumph comes, O blood-stained Flag!Washed clean and lustrous in the morning lightOf a new era, thou shalt float againIn more than pristine glory o'er the landPeace-blest and re-united. On the seasThou shalt be honored to the farthest isle.The oppressed of foreign lands shall flock the shoresTo look upon and bless thee. Mothers shall liftTheir infants to behold thee as a starNew-born in heaven to light the darksome world.The children weeping round the desolate, Sore-stricken mother in the saddened homeWhereto the father shall no more return, In future years will proudly boast the bloodOf him who bravely fell defending thee.And these misguided brothers who would tearThy starry field asunder and would trailTheir own proud flag and history in the dust, Ere many years will bless thee, dear old Flag, That thou didst triumph even over them We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enrichi