A Million More

Hanford Lennox Gordon 1836 ( Andover, New York, ) – 1920 ( Minnesota)



The nation calls aloud again,
For Freedom wounded writhes in pain.
Gird on your armor, Northern men;
Drop scythe and sickle, square and pen;
A million bayonets gleam and flash;
A thousand cannon peal and crash;
Brothers and sons have gone before;
A million more! a million more!
  
Fire and sword! aye, sword and fire!
Let war be fierce and grim and dire;
Your path be marked by flame and smoke,
And tyrant's bones and fetters broke:
Stay not for foe's uplifted hand;
Sheathe not the sword; quench not the brand
Till Freedom reign from shore to shore,
Or might 'mid ashes smoke and gore.
  
If leader stay the vengeance-rod,
Let him beware the wrath of God;
The maddened millions long his trust
Will crush his puny bones to dust,
And all the law to guide their ire
Will be the law of blood and fire.
Come, then the shattered ranks implore
A million more a million more!
  
Form and file and file and form;
This war is but God's thunder-storm
To purify our cankered land
And strike the fetter from the hand.
Forced by grim fate our Chief at last
Shall blow dear Freedom's bugle-blast;
And then shall rise from shore to shore
Four millions more four millions more.[CS]
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 31, 2023

1:05 min read
2

Quick analysis:

Scheme axaabbcC deffggcc hhiiedcC jjggkkcx
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,135
Words 214
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8

Hanford Lennox Gordon

Gen. Hanford Lennox Gordon, prominent among the organizers of the State of Minnesota and for over thirty years a resident of California, died in his sleep Thursday morning at his daughter's residence here. Although given up to die in his thirties and a semi-invalid he attained nearly 84 years. He was a poet as well as a pioneer and shortly before his death revised his "Indian Legends and Other Poems." He won his military title fighting against the Sioux during Minnesota's bloodiest days of massacre, but afterward was a great friend of the Indians and was adopted into the Sioux tribe, an honor granted few white men. He was an officer and organizer of the gallant First Minnesota regiment which made a magnificent charge at Round Top during the Civil War, a feat which he embalmed in majestic verse. After the war he devoted himself to law and lumbering. For years he stood at the head of the bar in Minnesota. He took a strong interest in politics and helped to organize the Republican party in his State. He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln and was repeatedly elected to high office. After coming to California he took up ranching and he had a considerable part in the developing of southwestern Los Angeles, having at one time owned all of Kinney Heights. Burial will be at Rosedale Cemetery today. more…

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