VIENNA AND 'IN MEMORIAM' by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER

Roused by the war-note, in review I passed
The polities of nations - their intrigues -
Their long-drawn wars and hates - their loves and leagues;
But when I came on sad Vienna, last,
Her scroll of annals, timidly unrolled,
Ran backward from my helpless hands! the woe
Of that one hour that laid our Arthur low,
Made all her chronicle look blank and cold:
Then turned I to that Book of memory,
Which is to grieving hearts like the sweet south
To the parched meadow, or the dying tree;
Which fills with elegy the craving mouth
Of sorrow - slakes with song her piteous drouth,
And leaves her calm, though weeping silently!

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