My Suitors

I have two suitors for my kindly grace,—The one a farmer's boy, with hard, brown hands;The other is a high-born English earl,With stately castles on his wide-spread lands.My Lord Eugene has a fair classic face,—And pearls and gold lace all his robes bestrew;While Charlie has an honest sunburnt cheek,And wears a private's uniform of blue:I do not think I ought to care for both,—Do you?

Both say they love me; both are very kind;Eugene will shield me from all care and strife;Charlie will give me all his warm true heart,And I shall be a Union soldier's wife.Eugene will never leave me,—so he says;But soon to Charlie I must say adieu,And think of him upon the dang'rous field,And lie awake to pray the whole night through!He may come back no more,—I'll not be cold,—Would you?

I saw Eugene in furious anger once,Beating his horse till every quivering limbOf the proud beast hardened to sinewy steel,And the deep eyes flashed lightning back to him!Charlie's white mare knows not the coward whip!He feeds her with red clover wet with dew,—I smooth her mane, soft as Italia's silk,And, loving her, think of her master too!I could not trust the man who beats his horse,—Could you?

Welcome! soft summer night! ablaze with stars!Flushed rosy with the lang'rous smile of day!Welcome! warm breezes that have swept through grovesOf orange-trees, around some southern bay!Anchored, my heart's at rest! a calm supremeFills me with voiceless peace, so strangely new,I almost fear to hold and make it mine,Lest it should vanish like the morning dew!I do not think I shall regret the Earl,—Do you?