I LAY upon the solemn plain And by the funeral mound, Where those who died not there in vain Their place of sleep had found. 'T was silent where the free blood gushed, When Persia came arrayed, -- So many a voice had there been hushed, So many a footstep stayed. I slumbered on the lonely spot, So sanctified by Death, -- I slumbered, -- but my rest was not As theirs who lay beneath. For on my dreams, that shadowy hour, They rose, -- the chainless dead, -- All armed they sprang, in joy, in power, Up from their grassy bed. I saw their spears, on that red field, Flash as in time gone by, -- Chased to the seas, without his shield I saw the Persian fly. I work, -- the sudden trumpet's blast Called to another fight, -- From visions of our glorious past, who doth not wake in might? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THESMOPHORIAZUSAE: WOMEN'S CHORUS by ARISTOPHANES CREDO by WILLIAM ARTHUR DUNKERLEY BEDTIME by FRANCIS ROBERT ST. CLAIR ERSKINE NIGHTMARE, FR. IOLANTHE by WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT AN ELEGIE, OR FRIENDS PASSION, FOR HIS ASTROPHILL by MATTHEW ROYDEN AT BETHLEHEM: 3. TO HIS MOTHER by JOHN BANISTER TABB |