Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE EXILE'S DIRGE, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE EXILE'S DIRGE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: There went a dirge through the forest's gloom
Last Line: They had reached the exile's lonely tomb.
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Exiles; Funerals; Burials


THERE went a dirge through the forest's gloom --
An exile was borne to a lonely tomb.

"Brother!" (so the chant was sung
In the slumberer's native tongue),
"Friend and brother! not for thee
Shall the sound of weeping be:
Long the exile's woe hath lain
On thy life a withering chain;
Music from thine own blue streams,
Wandered through thy fever-dreams;
Voices from thy country's vines
Met thee 'midst the alien pines;
And thy true heart died away,
And thy spirit would not stay."

So swelled the chant; and the deep wind's moan
Seemed through the cedars to murmur -- "Gone!"
"Brother! by the rolling Rhine
Stands the home that once was thine.
Brother! now thy dwelling lies
Where the Indian arrow flies!
He that blessed thine infant head,
Fills a distant greensward bed;
She that heard thy lisping prayer,
Slumbers low beside him there;
They that earliest with thee played,
Rest beneath their own oak shade,
Far, far hence! -- yet sea nor shore
Haply, brother! part ye more;
God hath called thee to that band
In the immortal Fatherland!"

"The Fatherland!" with that sweet word
A burst of tears 'midst the strain was heard.
"Brother! were we there with thee,
Rich would many a meeting be!
Many a broken garland bound,
Many a mourned and lost one found!
But our task is still to bear,
Still to breathe in changeful air
Loved and bright things to resign,
As even now this dust of thine;
Yet to hope! -- to hope in heaven,
Though flowers fall, and ties be riven;
Yet to pray! and wait the hand
Beckoning to the Fatherland!"

And the requiem died in the forest's gloom;
They had reached the exile's lonely tomb.





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