Civil War: A Conflict of the Literate
I read in an online archive of essays on writings of the Civil War that eight out of ten Confederate soldiers and nine out of ten Union soldiers were literate. When I followed up on that fact, I found collections of thousands of diaries and letters and hundreds of poems. Many of the poems have names attached to them, although for most of the poems I looked at, there is no other record of the author.
Poetry as a way to try to make sense of their brutal war
The poem I selected for this week’s featured poem, like most of the ones I read, was no different from poems written by hundreds and thousands of soldiers in ancient wars and in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Poets try to make sense of the brutality raging around them and its impact on their world and themselves.
Shall I See My Boy Again
by Anonymous
Must I die so soon? ah, far away
By blue Ohio’s shore,
A little group waits patiently
Till this sad war is o’er;
A little face is often pressed
Against the window pane,
Oh, chaplain only tell me this
Shall I see my boy again?
Must I never press close to my heart
The rings of shining hair,
Or listen to my bright-eyed childMy Boy
Whisper his evening prayer,
Shall I never hear his bounding step
Across the cottage floor?
It were not hard to die, chaplain,
Could I see my boy once more.
When morning broke with solemn tread
On old Potomac’s banks,
His comrades laid the soldier down –
Discharged from the ranks,
But many a day o’er western hills,
By blue Ohio’s shore,
A little boy will patient wait,
When this sad war is o’er.