The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 242 new series, August 1916) — John Shaqi
The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 242 new series, August 1916)Various
General
The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 242 new series, August 1916)
Various
England -- Periodicals; English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
_I trust lovers of Charlotte Brontë will welcome, in this centennial year
of her birth, the first publication of this poem._
GEORGE E. MACLEAN.
Lament for the Martyr who dies for his faith,
Who prays for his foes with his failing breath,
Who sees, as he looks to the kindling sky,
God and his captain, the Saviour, nigh;
Who sees the mighty recompense,
When soul is conquering flesh and sense;
Sees heaven and all its angels bright,
At the very end of his mortal fight,
At the black close of that agony
Which sets the impatient spirit free;
Then, as in Christ he sinks to sleep,
Weep for the Dying Martyr, weep.
And the soldier, laid on the battle-plain
Alone at the close of night, alone,
The passing off of some warlike-strain
Blent with his latest moan;
His thoughts all for his fatherland,
His feeble heart, his unnerved hand
Still quiveringly upraised to wield
Once more his bright sword on the field,
While wakes his fainting energy
To gain her yet one victory;
As he lies bleeding, cold and low,
As life’s red tide is ebbing slow,
Lament for fallen bravery.
For the son of wisdom, the holy sage,
Full of knowledge and hoar with age,
Him who had walked through the times of night,
As if on his path a secret light
Lustrous and pure and silent fell;
To all, save himself, invisible,
A secret ray from Heaven’s own shrine
Poured on that spirit half divine,
And making a single Isle of light
In the wide blank ocean of Pagan night;
Lament for him as you see him laid
Waiting for Death on the Dungeon bed,
The sickly lamp beside him burning,
Its dim ray falling on sorrow and gloom;
Around him his sad disciples mourning,
As they watch for the hour of awful doom;
And he, by coming death unshaken,
As if that slumber would soon be o’er,
As if all freshened he should waken
And see the light of morn once more.
Ay, on the sage’s, the soldier’s bier
I could drop many a pitying tear,
And as the martyr sinks to sleep
I could in love, in sorrow weep.
...
‘_THE IMPERIAL JUNKER._’
_WHAT THE KAISER’S OWN MEN THOUGHT OF HIM._
BY A NEUTRAL DIPLOMAT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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