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FAREWELL TO GALVESTON.

No gloom or sadness from the outer world,
With feet unholy then would wander in,
To grasp the golden treasures of the soul,

And bear them forth to sorrow and to sin!
The heart's proud fields! its harvests full and fair,
Innocence and love, could we but keep them there,
Minding the gap!

Farewell to Galveston.

BY COLONEL A. M. HOBBY, TEXAS.

Inscribed to to Miss Sallie B. Brannum.

QUEEN City of the Gulf! and must it be
That I shall say farewell to scenes like thine?
More lovely still they seem, as all I see
May never gladden more these eyes of mine!
But Memory will not all these joys resign,
But backward turn to lighten coming care,
Amid thy blooming gardens lovingly,
Inhale the sweetness of the evening air,
Mellowed into softness by day's declining glare.

There is a mildness in the zephyr's breath
That floats voluptuously soft and warm,
That speaks not to the flowers of chill or death;
Nor brilliant skies like thine give birth to storm.
All that can please in climate, or can form

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Our happiness, by Nature's generous hand
Bestowed, is native here the Pilgrim saith;

The fever'd cheek by cooling breezes fann'd,

While swiftly purple health the swelling veins expand.

Here Spring through blushing skies first points her flight,

Veil'd in fleecy clouds, waved on by golden hours, Old Winter draws apace at face so bright,

And vengeful breathes a chill along the flowers, Till Earth is painted bright, as 'twere the showers Dropp'd gaudy bloom, adorning home and vale, While pallid buds grow crimson in the light; Spring spreads her garments over hill and dale, And leaves her fragrant breath upon the scented gale.

But thou art changed, bright Ocean-girdled Queen!
And sadly changed, since first I trod thy walks.
Where wit and Wealth, and Beauty once were seen
Reigns solitude, or soldier idly stalks

And of thy homeless exiled children talks-
Who fondly thinking of thy sun-lit shore,

In joy forget that rivers roll between,

And dream that thou art charming as of yore

Ah! when will Time and Peace thy faded bloom restore?

Thy homes are desolate, and silence deep
Broods undisturbed within thy splendid halls,
While restless bats in endless circles sweep,
And spiders spread their nets along thy walls;
The winds as spirit unto spirit calls

FAREWELL TO GALVESTON.

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In whispers soft, or moanings fiercely loudThrough vineless lattice midnight revels keep; Thy spires still proudly rise amidst the cloud, Grand symbols of thy people's strength and hopes unbow'd.

Nor tuneless do these spires cleave the air,
But iron tongues send out their sacred sound,
Holy and pure, inviting all to prayer
From vast encampments silent spread around;
Man feels that this is consecrated ground,
And yields obedience to his Maker's laws,
Asks in the blessing of His love some share;
Communing thus, deep consolation draws,
As holy men invoke God's blessing on our cause.

And shall thy sons be passed unnoticed here,
Whose deeds of valor are a nation's pride;
Who marched to meet the invading foe, ere
Yet the first shock of battle came, and side
By side with Texas brothers fought and died?
Brave heroes! few, alas! are left us now;
But for the dead still flows the incessant tear!
Queen City! o'er their honored ashes bow,

For they with glorious deeds have wreathed thy

beauteous brow.

And Fame hath sepulchred thy mighty dead!
They sleep the long sleep that knows no waking;
Wrapp'd in their gory shrouds on honor's bed,
They heed not distant battle's thunder breaking,
Nor feel the shuddering earth its answer making!
Their bodies only sleep, their spirits still

Ride on the breeze, where'er our armies tread,
Their mystic forms our souls with courage fill,
And add new strength to th' unconquerable will.

Thy glorious name is proudly linked with those
Immortal names that Time can never blight,
For thou wert wrested from our country's foe;
Thy galling chains struck off by valor's might—
A sun of splendor rose upon thy night,
And with its rise the Tyrant's minions fell!
"What sound is that disturbs the night repose?"
The sentry said, ""Tis but the Ocean's swell,
Hymning to dying year a last and long farewell."

Beneath grey-mantled skies the storm of war
Is gath'ring fast, in battle's grand array
They sternly form beneath the Morning star,
And wait those coming shadows on the bay;
The white-lipp'd foe ask, trembling, "What are they !"
Their thunder answers and their lightning's play
Deals death; the battle rages fierce and wild,
Till darkness flies before the Morning car-

As Mother o'er her lost but new found child-
Along the blushing East the New Year pleasing smiled.

Old Ocean lays his head upon thy breast, His throbbing pulse denotes the lover's fears, His jealous arms around thee fondly pressed, And on thy bosom sheds his briny tears, The constant lover of a thousand years! Though constant, ever changing is his mood. 'Tis passion's billowy strife and wild unrest; And thou dost smile to see thyself thus wooed, To feel his great heart throb, then sighing, sink subdued.

ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC.

But now farewell to Ocean and his bride!

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Farewell, bright skies, and birds, and blooming

bowers!

We feel, whate'er to-morrow may betide,

Our loves are thine, the memory of these hours

Are linked with those who wreathed with smiles and flowers

War's iron brow, and still his care beguiles;
Here noble woman tends at suff'ring's side,

And like an angel o'er the sick couch smiles;—
Farewell! farewell, fairest and loveliest of all Isles!

All Quiet along the Potomac
To-night.*

BY LAMAR FONTAINE.

Company I., Second Regiment Virginia Cavalry. Written while on Picket on the banks of the Potomac, 1861.

"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.

'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.

* The authorship of this poem is also claimed by a lady of Brooklyn, N. Y.

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