The General’s Death
Joseph O’ Conner wrote this poem. This general referred to in this poem is George W. Taylor, who was killed at the Battle of Second Manassas on August 27, 1862.
The General dashed along the road
Amid the pelting rain;
How joyously his bold face glowed
To hear our cheer’s refrain!
His blue blouse flapped in the wind and wet,
His boots were splashed with mire,
But round his lips a smile was set,
And in his eyes a fire.
A laughing word, a gesture kind,--
We did not ask for more,
With thirty weary miles behind,
A weary fight before.
The gun grew light to every man,
The crossed belts ceased their stress,
As onward to the column’s van
We watched our leader press.
Within an hour we saw him lie,
A bullet in his brain,
His manly face turned to the sky,
And beaten by the rain.
In this poem, there are two different perspectives. One of them is that they were walking home from the battle and the general just was shot from one of his troop members or someone else was following them and they shot him. The other perspective was that they were walking home and they were lead into another battle and at the end of it they found there general dead.
In this poem there is a lot of imagery. There are several images of them marching home. " The general dashed along the road." The poem goes into detail of them walking home from the battle that they had just fought in. It also got into great detail of how happy the general was of winning the battle before. " How joyously his bold face glowed."
The rhyme scheme in this poem is ABAB. This poem also has rhythm. I think that the rhythm in this poem goes along with the soldiers marching in the beginning of the poem.
By: Tara Braaten
8-2
Little Starlight
This is about a boy who wants his master to become free he becomes a drummer boy and ends up finding out that he has one bad fault which is his propensity for stealing. This boy, one day finds his master and the chaplain in a fight. The boy tries to help out the master and finds out that he is dead. This boy is a guarding angle. He goes down to earth to help his master become free. The chaplain at the end looks at the boy and finally realizes that he was an angle and the boy disappears.
An army unit adopts a young black boy who wanders into their camp one day. The boy, during an informal court martial, talks of having stolen all of his master's pigeons, then making his way to Virginia. The boy is made a drummer boy, which makes him very proud. The company chaplain, the narrator of the story, tells of how the boy had only one bad fault, which was his propensity for stealing. The boy also claims to be willing to kill his master, for only then would he truly be free. In a heated battle one day, the boy cries out to the chaplain that he sees his master, and after grabbing a weapon, takes off after him. After the battle, the chaplain finds the man the boy pointed to, and sees that he is dead, having been stabbed several times. A sergeant comes up to the chaplain and tells him the boy is dying, much to the grief of the entire company. When the chaplain sees the boy, the boy smiles and says he is finally free, then he dies. They bury him and put a board over him with an epitaph scratched on it.
There was no author to this story.
Http://www.civilwarliterature.com
Language Bibliography
Http://users.erols.com/kfraser/gendeath.htm
Http://users.erols.com/kfraser/upoetry.htm
Http://www.lightspan.com/search2/pages/search.asp?_prod=LS&phrase=civil+war+poetry&grade=k-8
Http://www.civilwarliterature.com/4children/littlestarlight/littlestarlight.htm