Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Richard WatsonGilder

910 Sherman

GLORY and honor and fame and everlasting laudation

For our captains who loved not war, but fought for the life of the nation;

Who knew that, in all the land, one slave meant strife, not peace;

Who fought for freedom, not glory; made war that war might cease.

Glory and honor and fame; the beating of muffled drums;

The wailing funeral dirge, as the flag-wrapped coffin comes;

Fame and honor and glory; and joy for a noble soul,

For a full and splendid life, and laurelled rest at the goal.

Glory and honor and fame; the pomp that a soldier prizes;

The league-long waving line as the marching falls and rises;

Rumbling of caissons and guns; the clatter of horses’ feet,

And a million awe-struck faces far down the waiting street.

But better than martial woe, and the pageant of civic sorrow;

Better than praise of to-day, or the statue we build to-morrow;

Better than honor and glory, and history’s iron pen,

Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.