We learn it in Retreating 1
How vast an one
Was recently among us－
A Perished Sun
Endear in the departure 5
How doubly more
Than all the Golden presence
It was－before－
How vast an one
Was recently among us－
A Perished Sun
Endear in the departure 5
How doubly more
Than all the Golden presence
It was－before－
(F.1045/J.1083)
[1] Retreating:: the economic retreating during and after the Civil War (1861–1865). This poem was written around 1865.
[4] Sun:: gloriousness.
[5] Endear:: to render costly or more costly; to enhance the price of (OED 1, 1803). departure:: the deviation of the Southern and Northern states.
[6] doubly more:: twice as much costly than before.
[7, 8] Golden presence, before:: opulent materials we had before. Golden presence seems like price of gold, but it had kept unchanged from 1850 to 1871.
Upon certain facts, in regard to this matter, all will doubtless be agreed:—
(a) That those who live on fixed incomes from rent, interest, or salary, were never so straitened as during the war inflation.
(b) That laborers got less commodities for their services than before the expansion.
(c) That merchants, manufacturers, and business men generally, made extraordinary profits. ─ The Science of Wealth: a Manual of Political Economy (1867)
