Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood,

The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,

Whole in himself, a common good. Mourn for the man of amplest influ

ence,

Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
Our greatest yet with least pretence,
Great in council and great in war,
Foremost captain of his time,
Rich in saving common-sense,
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime.

O good gray head which all men knew,

O voice from which their omens all men drew,

O iron nerve to true occasion true, O fallen at length that tower of strength

Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew! Such was he whom we deplore. The long self-sacrifice of life is o'er. The great World-victor's victor will be seen no more.

V.

All is over and done:
Render thanks to the Giver,
England, for thy son.
Let the bell be tolled.
Render thanks to the Giver,
And render him to the mould.
Under the cross of gold

That shines over city and river,
There he shall rest forever
Among the wise and the bold.
Let the bell be tolled:

And a reverent people behold
The towering car, the sable steeds:
Bright let it be with its blazoned
deeds,

Dark in its funeral fold.

Let the bell be tolled:

And a deeper knell in the heart be knolled;

And the sound of the sorrowing anthem rolled

Thro' the dome of the golden cross; And the volleying cannon thunder his loss;

He knew their voices of old.
For many a time in many a clime
His captain's-ear has heard them
boom
Bellowing victory, bellowing doom:

When he with those deep voices wrought,

Guarding realms and kings from shame;

With those deep voices our dead captain taught

The tyrant, and asserts his claim
In that dread sound to the great name,
Which he has worn so pure of blame,
In praise and in dispraise the same,
A man of well-attempered frame.
O civic muse, to such a name,
To such a name for ages long,
To such a name,

Preserve a broad approach of fame,
And ever-echoing avenues of song.

VI.

Who is he that cometh, like an honored guest,

With banner and with music, with soldier and with priest, With a nation weeping, and breaking on my rest?

Mighty Seaman, this is he

Was great by land as thou by sea. Thine island loves thee well, thou famous man,

The greatest sailor since our world

began.

Now, to the roll of muffled drums,
To thee the greatest soldier comes;
For this is he

Was great by land as thou by sea;
His foes were thine; he kept us free;
O give him welcome, this is he
Worthy of our gorgeous rites,
And worthy to be laid by thee;
For this is England's greatest son,
He that gained a hundred fights,
Nor ever lost an English gun;
This is he that far away
Against the myriads of Assaye
Clashed with his fiery few and won;
And underneath another sun,
Warring on a later day,
Round affrighted Lisbon drew
The treble works, the vast designs
Of his labored rampart-lines,
Where he greatly stood at bay,
Whence he issued forth anew,
And ever great and greater grew,
Beating from the wasted vines
Back to France her banded swarms,
Back to France with countless blows,
Till o'er the hills her eagles flew
Beyond the Pyrenean pines,

Followed up in valley and glen
With blare of bugle, clamor of men,
Roll of cannon and clash of arms,
And England pouring on her foes.
Such a war had such a close.
Again their ravening eagle rose
In anger, wheeled on Europe-shadow-
ing wings,

And barking for the thrones of kings;
Till one that sought but Duty's iron

crown

On that loud sabbath shook the spoiler down;

A day of onsets of despair!
Dashed on every rocky square
Their surging charges foamed them-
selves away;

Last, the Prussian trumpet blew;
Through the long-tormented air
Heaven flashed a sudden jubilant ray,
And down we swept and charged
and overthrew.

So great a soldier taught us there, What long-enduring hearts could do In that world-earthquake, Waterloo! Mighty Seaman, tender and true, And pure as he from taint of craven guile,

O saviour of the silver-coasted isle, O shaker of the Baltic and the Nile, If aught of things that here befall Touch a spirit among things divine, If love of country move thee there at all,

Be glad, because his bones are laid by thine!

And thro' the centuries let a people's voice

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

people's ears:

The dark crowd moves, and there are sobs and tears:

The black earth yawns: the mortal disappears;

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
He is gone who seemed so great.
Gone; but nothing can bereave him
Of the force he made his own
Being here, and we believe him
Something far advanced in State,
And that he wears a truer crown
Than any wreath that man can
weave him.

Speak no more of his renown,
Lay your earthly fancies down,
And in the vast cathedral leave him.
God accept him, Christ receive him.
TENNYSON.

THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE AT CORUNNA.

NOT a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corse to the rampart we hurried;

[blocks in formation]

Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field of his fame fresh

and gory; We carved not a line, we raised not a stone,

But we left him alone with his glory.
CHARLES WOLFE.

ON SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

SILENCE augmenteth griefe, writing encreaseth rage,

Staid are my thoughts, which loved and lost, the wonder of our

age, Yet quickened now with fire, though dead with frost ere now, Enraged I write I know not what: dead, quick, I know not how.

Hard hearted mindes relent, and Rigor's tears abound, And Envy strangely rues his end, in whom no fault she found; Knowledge his light hath lost, Valor hath slaine her knight: Sidney is dead, dead is my friend,

dead is the world's delight.

[blocks in formation]

Heart's ease and onely I, like paraleles run on,

Whose equall length, keepe equall bredth and never meete in one, Yet for not wronging him, my thoughts, my sorrowes' cell, Shall not run out, though leake they will, for liking him so well.

Farewel to you my hopes, my wonted waking dreames, Farewel sometime enjoyed joy, eclipsed are thy beams, Farewel selfe-pleasing thoughts, which quietness brings forth, And farewel friendship's sacred

league uniting minds of worth.

[blocks in formation]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »