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Hymn of the
Republic” represents for her. In each case the poet was happy enough to secure, through influences impenetrable, one golden moment.
Even this poem, in
Mrs. Howe's case, was not (although many suppose otherwise) a song sung by all the soldiers.
The resounding lyric of “
John Brown's body” reached them much more readily, but the “Battle hymn” will doubtless survive all the rest of the rather disappointing metrical products of the war. For the rest of her poems, they are rarely quite enough concentrated; they reach our ears attractively, but not with positive mastery.
Of the war songs, the one entitled “Our orders” was perhaps the finest,--that which begins,--
Weave no more silks, ye Lyons looms,
To deck our girls for gay delights!
The crimson flower of battle blooms,
And solemn marches fill the night.
“Hamlet at the
Boston” is a strong and noble poem, as is “The last
Bird,” which has a flavor of
Bryant about it. “
Eros has Warning” and “Eros Departs” are two of the profoundest; and so is the following, which I have always thought her most original and powerful poem after the “Battle hymn,” in so far that I ventured to supply a feebler supplement to it on a late birthday.
