Cross the Green Mountain

                            I cross the green mountain        I sit by the stream   Heaven blazing in my  head I  dreamt a monstrous dream   Something came up      out of the sea          Swept through the land of  the rich and the free   I look into the eyes        of my merciful friend   And then i ask myself    is this the end?   Memories linger      sad yet sweet        and I think of the souls  in heaven who will meet   Altars are burning      with flames far and wide   The foe has crossed over      from the other side         They tip their caps    from the top of the hill   You can feel them come    more brave blood to spill   Along the dim    Atlantic line   the ravaged land    lies for miles behind   The light's coming forward        and the streets are broad     All must yield    to the avenging God   The world is old    the world is gray   Lessons of life    can't be learned in a day          I watch and I wait    and I listen while I stand   To the music that comes        from a far-better land Close the eyes of our  captain      peace may he know   His long night is done    the great leader is laid low   He was ready to fall      he was quick to defend        Killed outright he was      by his own men   It's the last day's last hour      of the last happy year   I feel that the unknown    world is so near   Pride will vanish      and glory will rot         But virtue lives    and cannot be forgot   The bells        of leavening have rung   There's blasphemy    on every tongue   Let 'em say that I walked      in fair nature's light      And that I was loyal    to truth and to right   Serve God and be cheerful      look upward beyond   Beyond the darkness of masks    the surprises of dawn        In the deep green grasses      of the blood stained world   They never dreamed of surrenderin'          they fell where they stood   Stars fell over Alabama      I saw each star   You're walkin' in dreams      whoever you are   Chilled are the skies      keen as the frost        The ground's froze hard      and the morning is lost   A letter to mother        came today   Gunshot wound to the breast      is what it did say   But he'll be better soon      he's in a hospital bed       But he'll never be better -      he's already dead         I'm ten miles outside the city    and I'm lifted away   In an ancient light      that is not of day   They were calm they were blunt      we knew 'em all too well     We loved each other more than    we ever dared to tell