Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SIXTEEN DEAD MEN, by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER Poet's Biography First Line: Hark! In the still night. Who goes there? Last Line: "guard her unconquered soul, strong in their death." Alternate Author Name(s): Sigerson, Dora; Shorter, Mrs. Clement Subject(s): Heroism; Ireland - Rebellions; Heroes; Heroines | ||||||||
HARK! in the still night. Who goes there? "Fifteen dead men." Why do they wait? "Hasten, comrade, death is so fair." Now comes their Captain through the dim gate. Sixteen dead men! What on their sword? "A nation's honour proud do they bear." What on their bent heads? "God's holy word; All of their nation's heart blended in prayer." Sixteen dead men! What makes their shroud? "All of their nation's love wraps them around." Where do their bodies lie, brave and so proud? "Under the gallows-tree in prison ground." Sixteen dead men! Where do they go? "To join their regiment, where Sarsfield leads; Wolfe Tone and Emmet, too, well do they know. There shall they bivouac, telling great deeds." Sixteen dead men! Shall they return? "Yea, they shall come again, breath of our breath. They on our nation's hearth made old fires burn. Guard her unconquered soul, strong in their death." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON NOTES FOR AN ELEGY by WILLIAM MEREDITH THE EROTICS OF HISTORY by EAVAN BOLAND A SONG FOR HEROES by EDWIN MARKHAM AFTER THE BROKEN ARM by RON PADGETT PRELUDE; FOR GEOFFREY GORER by EDITH SITWELL EXAMINATION OF THE HERO IN A TIME OF WAR by WALLACE STEVENS THE WIND ON THE HILLS by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER |
|