Picardy, Provençe, Touraine— Never the fair home land again, For the Sieur de Rochefontaine! Never to lie among his own With the soft south breezes o'er him blown Where his stately noble name is known! But ever and evermore to rest, With the alien marble above his breast, In the clime of his youthful soldier quest. In the tyrannous time of war and woe, The ancient foe of his folk our foe, Hither he came with Rochambeau. Lace and ruffle and epaulet, Grace and a courtier bearing, yet A soul as valiant as Lafayette. A valiant soul that burned to be In the fore of the fight for liberty With the dauntless men who would fain be free. Just another who caught the gleam Of the sun of Freedom's rising beam, Who saw the vision, who dreamed the dream. Daily Broadway's clamours and calls Sweep by the chapel of old St. Paul's, Its levelled graves and its ivied walls. Here he sleeps; may his slumbers be Sweet with the great felicity That waits, 'tis said, beyond Death's dark sea. Never the fair home land!—and still What matters it for a noble will That smites for right, 'gainst a giant ill? Ours the freedom he helped to gain; So a plot of our free domaine For the Sieur de Rochefontaine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MEMORIAL TO D.C.: 2. PRAYER TO PERSEPHONE by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY A RENOUNCING OF LOVE by THOMAS WYATT CHRISTMAS AFTER WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE CITY: 1. VILLAGE FANTASY - THE QUEST by STIRLING BOWEN STANZAS by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD THE ADVANCE GUARD by BERTON BRALEY A STRICTURE ON BISHOP WARBURTON'S DOCTRINE OF GRACE by JOHN BYROM ON HER ENDEAVOURING TO CONCEAL HER GRIEF AT PARTING by WILLIAM COWPER |