Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

IV. Comfort and Cheer

The Song of the Savoyards

Henry Ames Blood (1836–1900)

FAR poured past Broadway’s lamps alight,

The tumult of her motley throng,

When high and clear upon the night

Rose an inspiring song,

And rang above the city’s din

To sound of harp and violin;

A simple but a manly strain,

And ending with the brave refrain—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!

And now where rose that song of cheer,

Both old and young stood still for joy;

Or from the windows hung to hear

The children of Savoy:

And many an eye with rapture glowed,

And saddest hearts forgot their load,

And feeble souls grew strong again,

So stirring was the brave refrain—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!

Alone, with only silence there,

Awaiting his life’s welcome close,

A sick man lay, when on the air

That clarion arose;

So sweet the thrilling cadence rang,

It seemed to him an angel sang,

And sang to him; and he would fain

Have died upon that heavenly strain—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!

A sorrow-stricken man and wife,

With nothing left them but to pray,

Heard streaming over their sad life

That grand, heroic lay:

And through the mist of happy tears

They saw the promise-laden years;

And in their joy they sang again,

And carolled high the fond refrain—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!

Two artists, in the cloud of gloom

Which hung upon their hopes deferred,

Resounding through their garret-room

That noble chanson heard;

And as the night before the day

Their weak misgivings fled away;

And with the burden of the strain

They made their studio ring again—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!

Two poets, who in patience wrought

The glory of an aftertime,—

Lords of an age which knew them not,

Heard rise that lofty rhyme;

And on their hearts it fell, as falls

The sunshine upon prison-walls;

And one caught up the magic strain

And to the other sang again—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!

And unto one, who, tired of breath,

And day and night and name and fame,

Held to his lips a glass of death,

That song a savior came;

Beseeching him from his despair,

As with the passion of a prayer;

And kindling in his heart and brain

The valor of its blest refrain—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!

O thou, with earthly ills beset,

Call to thy lips those words of joy,

And never in thy life forget

The brave song of Savoy!

For those dear words may have the power

To cheer thee in thy darkest hour;

The memory of that loved refrain

Bring gladness to thy heart again!—

Courage! courage, mon camarade!