Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

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	" Qui vive And is the sentry's cry,— The sleepless soldier's band,— Are these — the painted folds that fly And lift their emblems, printed high On morning mist and sunset sky — The guardians of a land ? No I if the patriot's pulses sleep, How vain the watch that hirelings keep, The idle flag that waves, When Conquest, with his iron heel, Treads down the standards and the steel That belt the soil of slaves! — Oliver Wendell Holmes.
	How sleep the brave, who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blest! When spring, with dewy fingers cold, Returns to deck their hallowed mould, She there shall dress a sweeter sod Than fancy's feet have ever trod. By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung: There Honor comes, a pilgrim grey, To bless the turf that wraps their clay; And Freedom shall awhile repair, To dwell a weeping hermit there. — William Collin.*