GENTLE and lovely form, What didst thou here, When the fierce battle-storm Bore down the spear? Banner and shivered crest Beside thee strown, Tell, that amidst the best, Thy work was done! Yet strangely, sadly fair, O'er the wild scene, Gleams, through its golden hair. That brow serene. Low lies the stately head -- Earth-bound the free. How gave those haughty dead A place to thee? Slumberer! thine early bier Friends should have crowned, Many a flower and tear Shedding around. Soft voices, clear and young, Mingling their swell, Should o'er thy dust have sung Earth's last farewell. Sisters, above the grave Of thy repose, Should have bid violets wave With the white rose. Now must the trumpet's note, Savage and shrill, For requiem o'er thee float, Thou fair and still! And the swift charger sweep In full career, Trampling thy place of sleep, -- Why camest thou here? Why? -- ask the true heart why Woman hath been Ever, where brave men die, Unshrinking seen? Unto this harvest ground Proud reapers came, -- Some, for that stirring sound, A warrior's name; Some for the stormy play And joy of strife; And some, to fling away A weary life; -- But thou, pale sleeper, thou, With the slight frame, And the rich locks, whose glow Death cannot tame; Only one thought, one power, Thee could have led, So, through the tempest's hour, To lift thy head! Only the true, the strong, The love, whose trust Woman's deep soul too long Pours on the dust! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOW TO KNOW LOVE FROM DECEIT by WILLIAM BLAKE ESTONIAN BRIDAL SONG by JOHANN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER THE WOLF AND THE DOG by JEAN DE LA FONTAINE OLD KING COLE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON TICHBORNE'S ELEGY, WRITTEN IN THE TOWER BEFORE HIS EXECUTION by CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE CITY OF ORGIES by WALT WHITMAN A CRADLE SONG OF THE NIGHT WIND by WILLIS BOYD ALLEN |