‘The Mystery of October Twelfth’

 

For five long years

General Lee led the army

Defending Christian Dixie

From invading

Pagan Yankees.

Defeated, his life lasted

Only five years more,

Exhausted by the strains

Of war-battle

And of heart-sadness,

Forced to watch

His people suffer

Under the wrathful rule

Of the Northern foe.

On October twelfth

His soul departed

From his weary body

And began its ascent

To the heavens.

 

***

 

Twelve hundred years before

In Northumberland,

A pagan king named Edwin

Was enlightened with the Gospel

By the preaching

Of an holy bishop –

Paulinus of York.

Baptized into Christ,

He banished idolatry

From his realm

And ruled with great virtue

Until Satan stirred up

Evil within the soul

Of merciless Penda,

Mercia’s heathen king.

At the Battle of Hatfield Chase

Young Edwin was slain,

To his people’s great dismay,

On that same October twelfth.

 

***

 

As the soul of Robert Edward Lee

Began its journey

Up towards God,

It was mighty fitting

That it be met

By the Christian Martyr

Saint Edwin of the English,

Who suffered cruelties

From the heathen

Together with his people,

As had General Lee,

Whose own lineage

Reaches far into

The English past.

And on those two went –

The pair whose death-days

Likewise coincided –

On to the Kingdom of Heaven,

To enjoy rest from their labors

In the sweetness of Paradise

With the angelic powers

And with many

Other godly men

Of every age.

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!