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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ROBERT THE BRUCE (TO DOUGLAS IN DYING), by EDWIN MUIR Poet Analysis Poet's Biography Last Line: Having outfaced three english kings / and kept a people's faith Subject(s): Robert I. King Of Scotland (1274-1329); Death; Bruce, Robert; The Bruce; Dead, The | |||
MY life is done, yet all remains, The breath has gone, the image not, The furious shapes once forged in heat Live on though now no longer hot. Steadily the shining swords In order rise, in order fall, In order on the beaten field The faithful trumpets call. The women weeping for the dead Are not sad now but dutiful, The dead men stiffening in their place Proclaim the ancient rule. Great Wallace's body hewn in four, So altered, stays as it must be. 0 Douglas do not leave me now, For past your head I see My dagger sheathed in Comyn's heart And nothing there to praise or blame, Nothing but order which must be Itself and still the same. But that Christ hung upon the Cross, Comyn would rot until time's end And bury my sin in boundless dust, For there is no amend. In order; yet in order run All things by unreturning ways, If Christ live not, nothing is there For sorrow or for praise.' So the king spoke to Douglas once A little while before his death, Having outfaced three English kings And kept a people's faith. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY |
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