The Dying Soldier

The Dying Soldier a machine-readable transcription R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang Kristen Treen transcription and encoding Kristen Treen R. J. Weir Elizabeth Lorang aa.18640806.2 cwnewspaperpoetry Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing

http://www.scholarlyediting.org

Association for Documentary Editing University of Nebraska–Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities

319 Love Library University of Nebraska–Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68588-4100 http://cdrh.unl.edu

2012

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Derivatives must be credited to R. J. Weir and Elizabeth Lorang, made available non-commercially, and distributed under the same terms.

Scholarly Editing: The Annual of the Association for Documentary Editing editor Amanda Gailey editor Andrew Jewell 34 2167-1257 Brown Eyed Ruth The Dying Soldier The Anglo-African 6 August 1864 [2] The microfilm copy used for transcription was loaned by Indiana University-Bloomington. <imprint> <date sameAs="#issue_date"/> </imprint> </monogr> </biblStruct> </sourceDesc> </fileDesc> <encodingDesc> <p>This electronic text is a semi-diplomatic transcription of the source text. Hyphenation, punctuation, variant spellings, and errors present in the source text have been retained. The transcription does not attempt to capture all aspects of the original formatting or layout.</p> </encodingDesc> <profileDesc> <creation> <persName xml:id="ber">Unknown</persName> <persName xml:id="rh">Hamilton, Robert</persName> <persName xml:id="th">Hamilton, Thomas</persName> <date when="1865">1864</date> </creation> <langUsage> <language ident="en-US">modern American English</language> </langUsage> <textClass> <classCode scheme="http://authorities.loc.gov"> <term>Death--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century</term> <term>Death--United States--Psychological aspects--History--19th century</term> <term>United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Military life</term> </classCode> </textClass> </profileDesc> <revisionDesc> <change when="2013-03-02" who="#el">made copyediting changes</change> <change when="2013-01" who="#el">revised transcription and encoding to address errors and inconsistencies; updated editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-11" who="#awj">added Scholarly Editing info to TEI header</change> <change when="2012-10-28" who="#el">added and encoded editorial notes</change> <change when="2012-09-06" who="#el">checked transcription and encoding</change> <change when="2012-09-02" who="#el">checked basic encoding</change> <change when="2012-06-15" who="#el">checked transcription; encoded</change> <change when="2012-04-29" who="#bw">checked transcription</change> <change when="2012-05-23" who="#kt">transcribed</change> </revisionDesc> </teiHeader> <facsimile corresp="#issue"> <surface xml:id="pp1"> <graphic url="aa.18640806.pp1.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp2"> <graphic url="aa.18640806.pp2.jpg"/> <zone xml:id="pp2_cropped" corresp="#poem"> <graphic url="aa.18640806.pp2_cropped.jpg"/> </zone> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp3"> <graphic url="aa.18640806.pp3.jpg"/> </surface> <surface xml:id="pp4"> <graphic url="aa.18640806.pp4.jpg"/> </surface> </facsimile> <text corresp="#poem #pp2_cropped"> <body> <lg type="poem"> <note type="newspaper-editorial" rend="center">FOR THE ANGLO-AFRICAN.</note> <head type="main" subtype="authorial" rend="center">THE DYING SOLDIER.<note type="editorial" resp="#bw #el"><p>The poem is unusual, in that relatively few verses published in the <title level="j">Anglo-African during the latter half of the war represented individual soldiers' deaths within the "framework of sentimental norms" that privileged family ties and tender thoughts of home (Alice Fahs, The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861–1865 [Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001], 98). More common were pieces that emphasized battlefield sacrifice.

Brown-Eyed Ruth's "The Dying Soldier" is part of a much larger subgenre of Civil War poems that "gave voice to dying soldiers' thoughts" (100). As Fahs observes, "'Dying soldier' poems had been published during the Mexican War, too . . . . But during the Civil War this sentimental poetry exploded in popularity. Published throughout the war in both the North and the South, these poems and songs were ubiquitous, with songs in particular sometimes selling hundreds of thousands of copies" (100). These pieces often present death as a parting, but "The Dying Soldier" anticipates a family reunion in heaven; the soldier's thoughts are memories of loved ones who have already died.

BY BROWN EYED RUTH.Unidentified. I. Grim visaged cannon had ceased their wild roar, Hushed was the musketry rattle— The bright flashing sabre, once dripping with gore, No longer made bloody the battle. No warm golden sun light now flooded the plain, The night-wind was mournfully sighing; And bore on its bosom, again and again, The groans of the wounded and dying. II. On the blood-crimsoned turf, with bright eyes upturned To the smoke-hidden heaven above; A dying youth lay, while his manly heart yearned For his home, and the friends of his love. Yet firmly he clings to his sabre, now red, While sharp are the pains through him darting; The glaze o'er his eyes (their brightness hath fled) Tells that body and spirit are parting. III. A smile wreathed the lips, that once were so sad, As he looked on the smoky cloud o'er him; Life shadowing twilight flits over his head, And visions of home danced before him. His father, with tottering steps, he now sees, Hears the sweet voice of his mother, And fronting the door, the wide spreading trees Where he played with his sister and brother. IV. Another sweet vision now gladensgladdens his gaze, With joy-smiles it comes him to meet: The beautiful play-mate of his youthful days Now gladly his presence doth greet. The blood-besmeared sabre, now fell from his hand, To his feet he triumphantly started, And then with a groan, fell back to the sand, While his spirit to meet them departed. Schenectady, N. Y., July, 1864.