The poem below, written many years ago by Miss H. F. Gould of Newbury-port, refers to her father, Captain Benjamin Gould, and his little grandson, now Dr. Benjamin A. Gould, the astronomer.
THE SCAR OF LEXINGTON1
[By Hannah F. Gould.]
With cherub smile, the prattling boy
Who on the veteran’s breast reclines,
Has thrown aside his favorite toy,
And round his tender finger twines
Those scattered locks, that with the flight
Of fourscore years are snowy white;
And as a scar arrests his view,
He cries, ”Grandpa, what wounded you?”
”My child, ’tis five-and-fifty years
This very day, this very hour.
Since from a scene of blood and tears
Where valor fell by hostile power,
I saw retire the setting sun
Behind the hills of Lexington;
While pale and lifeless on the plain
My brothers lay, for freedom slain.
And ere that fight — the first that spoke
In thunder to our land — was o’er,
Amid the clouds of fire and smoke,
I felt my garments wet with gore.
‘Tis since that dread and wild affray,
That trying, dark, eventful day.
From this calm April eve so far,
I wear upon my cheek the scar.
When thou to manhood shalt be grown.
And I am gone in dust to sleep,
May freedom’s rights be still thine own.
And thou and thine in quiet reap
The unblighted product of the toil
In which my blood bedewed the soil;
And while those fruits thou shalt enjoy.
Bethink thee of this scar, my boy.
But should thy country’s voice be heard
To bid her children fly to arms,
Gird on thy grandsire’s trusty sword.
And, undismayed by war’s alarms,
Remember, on the battle-field,
I made the hand of God my shield!
And be thou spared, like me, to tell
What bore thee up, while others fell.”
* From The Story of Patriots Day by George Varney – Published by Lee and Shepard Publishers 1895. The reproduction of this wonderful little book is now available from Battle Road Books on Amazon.