ifearspeaking: Duty Honor Country

The shadows //are lengthening for me. //

The twilight is here. //

My days of old //have vanished，//tone and tint. //

They have gone //glimmering //

through the dreams //of things that were. //

Their memory //is one //of wondrous beauty，//

watered /by tears，//

and coaxed /and caressed /by the smiles of yesterday. //

I listen //vainly，//

but with thirsty ears，//

for the witching melody //of faint bugles //blowing reveille，//

of far drums //beating the long roll. //

In my dreams//

I hear again /the crash of guns，//the rattle of musketry，//

the strange，//mournful /mutter of the battlefield. //

But /in the evening of my memory，//

always //I come back //to West Point. //

Always //there echoes /and re-echoes: /Duty，/Honor，Country. /

Today //marks /my final /roll call /with you，//

but I want you to know //that when I cross the river//

my last /conscious thoughts //will be/

of The Corps，//and The Corps，//and The Corps. //

I bid you /farewell. //

ifearspeaking