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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ABERCROMBIE'S GRAVE, by CARROLL RYAN Poem Explanation Poet's Biography
First Line: No drooping willow weeps
Last Line: Would dare to lay a desecrating hand.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ryan, William Thomas Carroll
Subject(s): Abercrombie, Sir Ralph (1734-1801); Death; Graves; Malta; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones
First Line: No drooping willow weeps
Last Line: Would dare to lay a desecrating hand.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ryan, William Thomas Carroll
Subject(s): Abercrombie, Sir Ralph (1734-1801); Death; Graves; Malta; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones
No drooping willow weeps,
Where Abercrombie sleeps
In the bastion that towers above the sea,
Where the billows evermore
Tell the echoes on the shore
Of him whose name was one with victory.
Near Abercrombie's grave,
Looking down across the wave,
Is a sleepless, giant, iron sentinel
Crouching grim and silent there,
Like a lion in his lair,
The ashes of the hero guarding well.
When Abercrombie died,
Old England o'er the tide,
Sent this sentinel to guard his sacred tomb
They are brothers—he who sleeps
And the giant one who keeps,
Endless vigil in the sunshine and the gloom.
Over Abercrombie's head
Floats a banner blazoned red,
Victorious over sea and over land,
And the foe had need be brave,
Who on Abercrombie's grave
Would dare to lay a desecrating hand.
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