Narrative and Lyric Poems (Second Series) for Use in the Lower School
General
Narrative and Lyric Poems (Second Series) for Use in the Lower School
English poetry
And this was on the last year’s Whitsuntide. 840
But Enid ever kept the faded silk,
Remembering how first he came on her,
Drest in that dress, and how he loved her in it,
And all her foolish fears about the dress,
And all his journey toward her, as himself 845
Had told her, and their coming to the court.
And now this morning when he said to her,
“Put on your worst and meanest dress,” she found
And took it, and array’d herself therein.
* * * * *
=ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF
WELLINGTON.=
PUBLISHED IN 1852.
I.
Bury the Great Duke
With an empire’s lamentation,
Let us bury the Great Duke
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation,
Mourning when their leaders fall, 5
Warriors carry the warrior’s pall,
And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall.
II.
Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore?
Here, in streaming London’s central roar.
Let the sound of those he wrought for, 10
And the feet of those he fought for,
Echo round his bones for evermore.
III.
Lead out the pageant: sad and slow,
As fits an universal woe,
Let the long long procession go, 15
And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow,
And let the mournful martial music blow;
The last great Englishman is low.
IV.
Mourn, for to us he seems the last,
Remembering all his greatness in the Past. 20
No more in soldier fashion will he greet
With lifted hand the gazer in the street.
O friends, our chief state-oracle is mute:
Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood,
The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute, 25
Whole in himself, a common good.
Mourn for the man of amplest influence,
Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
Our greatest yet with least pretence,
Great in council and great in war, 30
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, 35
O voice from which their omens all men drew,
O iron nerve to true occasion true,
O fall’n at length that tower of strength
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!
Such was he whom we deplore. 40
The long self-sacrifice of life is o’er.
The great World-victor’s victor will be seen no more.
V.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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