THE KEARSARGE                                                        S. Weir Mitchell                                        Burton E. Stevenson, Poems of American History                              (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1908), p. 526-527. Sunday in Old England:                                                  Across the barren lowlands,      In gray churches everywhere                                         Where mean find scanty food The clam of low responses                                             The north wind brings its vigor     The sacred hush of prayer.                                              To homestead plain and rude. Sunday in Old England:                                                   Ho, land of pine and granite!     And summer winds that went                                          Ho, hardy northern breeze! O’er the pleasant fields of Sussex,                                Well have you trained the manhood     The gardens lands of kent.                                               That shook the Channel seas, Stole into dim church windows                                      When o’er those storied waters     And passed the oaken door,                                            The iron war-bolts flew, An fluttered open prayer-books                                     And through Old England’s churches     With cannon’s awful roar.                                                The summer breezes blew; Sunday in New England:                                                 While in our other England     Upon a mountain gray                                                       Stirred one gaunt rocky steep, The wind-bent pines are swaying                                  When rode her sons as victors,     Like giants at their play;                                                    Lords of the lonely deep.                                                             London, July 20, 1864.                           It was reported that the cannon fire from the battle could be                                heard across the Channel along the coast of England.                                                                        RETURN
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