Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THOSE WHO REPROVED THE AUTHOR FOR TOO SANGUINE PATRIOTISM, by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THOSE WHO REPROVED THE AUTHOR FOR TOO SANGUINE PATRIOTISM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The riches of a nation are her dead
Last Line: If I prove false, it is the future errs.
Subject(s): Death; Memory; Patriotism; Dead, The


THE riches of a nation are her dead
Whom she hath borne to be her memory
Against her passing, when that time shall be,
And in the Cæsar's tomb she makes her bed;
And oft of such decay in books I've read —
Carthage or Venice, who had wealth as we;
Yet, all too wise for patriots, blame not me!
I know a nation's gold is not man's bread.

But rather from itself the heart infers
That ached when Lincoln died! those boyish tears
Still keep my breast untraitored by its fears;
Farragut, Phillips, Grant — I saw them shine,
Names worthy to have filled old Virgil's line;
If I prove false, it is the future errs.





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