Complete Poetical Works

RELIEVING GUARD

     THOMAS STARR KING.  OBIIT MARCH 4, 1864

     Came the relief. "What, sentry, ho!
     How passed the night through thy long waking?"
     "Cold, cheerless, dark,—as may befit
     The hour before the dawn is breaking."

     "No sight? no sound?"  "No; nothing save
     The plover from the marshes calling,
     And in yon western sky, about
     An hour ago, a star was falling."

     "A star?  There's nothing strange in that."
     "No, nothing; but, above the thicket,
     Somehow it seemed to me that God
     Somewhere had just relieved a picket."