WHAT would best please our friend, in token of The sense of our great loss? -- Our sighs and tears? Nay, these he fought against through all his years, Heroically voicing, high above Grief's ceaseless minor, moaning like a dove, The paean triumphant that the soldier hears, Scaling the walls of death, midst shouts and cheers, The old Flag laughing in his eyes' last love. Nay, then, to pleasure him were it not meet To yield him bravely, as his fate arrives? -- Drape him in radiant roses, head and feet, And be partakers, while his work survives, Of his fair fame, -- paying the tribute sweet To all humanity -- our nobler lives. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SHADOW ON THE STONE by THOMAS HARDY GIVE ME THY HEART by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER TO ONE WHO ASKS by MARY REYNOLDS ALDIS ON THE AMOROUS AND PATHETIC STORY OF ARCADIUS AND SEPHA by L. B. SLUMBER FAIRIES by KATHARINE LEE BATES |