Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SIXTEEN DEAD MEN by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER

First Line: HARK! IN THE STILL NIGHT. WHO GOES THERE?
Last Line: "GUARD HER UNCONQUERED SOUL, STRONG IN THEIR DEATH."
Subject(s): HEROISM; IRELAND - REBELLIONS; HEROES; HEROINES;
HARK! in the still night. Who goes there?
@3"Fifteen dead men."@1 Why do they wait?
@3"Hasten, comrade, death is so fair."@1
Now comes their Captain through the dim gate.

Sixteen dead men! What on their sword?
@3"A nation's honour proud do they bear."@1
What on their bent heads? @3"God's holy word;
All of their nation's heart blended in prayer."@1

Sixteen dead men! What makes their shroud?
@3"All of their nation's love wraps them around."@1
Where do their bodies lie, brave and so proud?
@3"Under the gallows-tree in prison ground."@1

Sixteen dead men! Where do they go?
@3"To join their regiment, where Sarsfield leads;
Wolfe Tone and Emmet, too, well do they know.
There shall they bivouac, telling great deeds."@1

Sixteen dead men! Shall they return?
@3"Yea, they shall come again, breath of our breath.
They on our nation's hearth made old fires burn.
Guard her unconquered soul, strong in their death."@1



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