A Burning Shame

I certainly do not intend to turn this blog into a review of poems from and/or about the Civil War era, but if I find verses that interest me of that I think are worth sharing, I will post them here.

Today's poem comes from the antique Under Both Flags book that I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago. It is on page 211 and I thought it a bit humorous and amusing. Perhaps "reconciliation" is a theme of these lines too, though in a different format. I don't know if Dixie Wolcott is the suthor or the character in the poem

A BURNING SHAME

Dixie Wolcott

That there wasn't a saucier rebel

In all the sunny South,

'Twas easy to tell by the mischievous eyes

And the smile of her roguish mouth.

But how she hated the Yankees

She couldn't bear the name;

"How dared they come and whip us;

It was a burning shame!"

One of those self-same Yankees

Came to her Dixie one day,

And ere the week was over

She'd stolen his heart away.

But how should she treat her captive?

He couldn't be shot you know,

Because the war was ended

Two dozen years ago.

So in order to keep him prisoner

The rest of his life instead

She reckoned she'd have to marry him, tho'

"'Twas a burin shame," she said.