Morn and noon of day and even, human ebb and flow; Overhead, the stars of midnight, -- scarce the faintest glow, -- Shrunken into misty marsh-fires be the city's glare; Here he sleeps, our sailor hero, -- pause and hail him fair! Here he sleeps where jostling Wall Street merges in Broadway, And the roar is as a legion leaping to the fray. Out from Trinity's dim portal floats the chanting choir; Matchless midst the girdling granite lifts the graceful spire. Many slumberers around him, men of church and state; Here he sleeps, our sailor hero, great among the great! Simple lines to mark his slumber; how the letters speak! "Lawrence (hark, ye money getters!) of the Chesapeake!" Stone may call in clearer accents than the loudest lip. Just a name! What does it cry you? "Don't give up the ship!" Aye, there's something more than millions, -- a far nobler aim! Here he sleeps, our sailor hero, nothing but a name! Yet (and who can pierce the future?) this may one day be As a burning inspiration both on land and sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EXILED by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY FOOTLIGHT MOTIFS: 2. PHOEBE FOSTER by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE ABBOT OF INISFALEN by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM FOUR SONNETS: 2 by FRANK DAVIS ASHBURN FELIX OPPORTUNITATE MORTIS by ALFRED AUSTIN SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 43. ONE CHANCE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |