ONCE in the breezy coppice didst thou dance, And nightingales amid thy foliage sang; Formed by man's cruel art into a lance, Oft hast thou pierced, (the while the welkin rang With trump and drum, shoutings and battle clang,) Some foeman's heart. Pride, pomp, and circumstance, Have left thee, now, and thou dost silent hang, From age to age, in deep and dusty trance. What is thy change to ours? These gazing eyes, To earth reverting, may again arise In dust to settle on the self-same space; Dust, which some offspring, yet unborn, who tries To poise thy weight, may with his hand efface, And with his mouldered eyes again replace. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 5. THE STEVEDORES by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER WRAITH by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY STELLA'S BIRTHDAY, 1720 by JONATHAN SWIFT THE SEASONS: A HYMN by JAMES THOMSON (1700-1748) THE IVORY GATE; THRENODY by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES IN MEMORIAM W.M. & E.B.J. by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT KING PHILIP'S MEN by AUDREY ALEXANDRA BROWN THE WANDERER: 6. PALINGENSIS: THE SOUL'S SCIENCE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |