dark and grim, Grows gentle with memories tender, As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep— For their mother—may Heaven defend her ! The moon seems to shine just as brightly as then, That night when the love yet unspoken Leaped up to his lips—when low-murmured vows Were pledged to be ever unbroken. Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes, He dashes off tears that are welling, And gathers his gun closer up to its place, As if to keep down the heart-swelling. He passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree, The footstep is lagging and weary ; Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light, Toward the shade of the forest so dreary. Hark ! was it the night-wind that rustled the leaves ? Was it moonlight so wondrously flashing ? It looked like a rifle— “ Ha ! Mary, good-by !” And the life-blood is ebbing and plashing. All quiet along the Potomac to-night, No sound save the rush of the river ; While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead— The picket’s off duty forever ! E. B. Illustrations See also List of anti-war songs References Bibliography Beers, Ethel Lynn. All Quiet Along the Potomac, and Other Poems. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates (1879). Davidson, James Wood. The Living Writers of the South . New York: Carleton, Publisher (1869). Fontaine, Lamar; J.H. Hewitt (m.). "All Quiet Along the Potomac To-night" (Sheet Music). Columbia, S.C.: Julian A. Selby (1863). Graham, C.R. (ed.). Under Both Flags: A Panorama of the Great Civil War. Veteran Publishing Company (1896). LaBree, Ben. Camp Fires of the Confederacy. Louisville, KY: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company (1898). Matthews, Bander (ed.); N.C. Wyeth (illus.) Poems of American Patriotism. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1922). Sargent, Epes (ed.). Harper's Cyclopaedia of British and American Poetry. New York: Harper & Brothers (1882). External links All Quiet Along the Potomac, and Other Poems (1879) at archive.org Songs of the American Civil War 1863 songs 1861 poems Songs based on poems Works originally published in Harper's Weekly Works published anonymously