WHAT would best please our friend, in token of The sense of our great loss? -- Our sighs and tears? Nay, these he fought against through all his years, Heroically voicing, high above Grief's ceaseless minor, moaning like a dove, The paean triumphant that the soldier hears, Scaling the walls of death, midst shouts and cheers, The old Flag laughing in his eyes' last love. Nay, then, to pleasure him were it not meet To yield him bravely, as his fate arrives? -- Drape him in radiant roses, head and feet, And be partakers, while his work survives, Of his fair fame, -- paying the tribute sweet To all humanity -- our nobler lives. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COLOGNE; EPIGRAM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE SHAMEFUL DEATH by WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896) THE LEAPING POLL by WILLIAM HERVEY ALLEN JR. IN VINCULIS; SONNETS WRITTEN IN AN IRISH PRISON: HOW SHALL I BUILD by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE BOOK OF GOD by HORATIO (HORATIUS) BONAR ENCOURAGEMENT by EMILY JANE BRONTE THE WANDERER: 3. IN ENGLAND: 'MEDIO DE FONTE LEPORUM SURGIT AMARI..' by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |