Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REQUIEM; THOMAS RANDOLPH PRICE, by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY


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REQUIEM; THOMAS RANDOLPH PRICE, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: Sleep, soldier of the south, who loved me well!
Last Line: Sleep with thy early friends in battle slain!
Subject(s): Death; Price, Thomas Randolph (1839-1903); Dead, The


SLEEP, soldier of the South, who loved me well!
In many a heart is heard thy passing bell,
Here in the North where thy last labor was,
And down lone valleys of the long lost cause
Where thy young mates, lapped in heroic sleep,
Their green peace, envied of the living, keep.
The harder lot was thine — to live and toil
That sons as noble grace their native soil.
Sleep, gentle scholar of the golden lore
Of English speech, who from thy Attic store
Brought mastery of all tongues that poets use
And Europe ripens, sacred to the Muse!
O loyal nature, learnèd, eloquent,
Whose kindly courtesy to all men went,
I praise thee not for these, though worthy praise;
These have I found not seldom in life's ways.
But the sweet patience which adorned thy life,
To take the blows of this half-brutish strife,
And, if on thee some natural griefs must rain,
With quietness to dignify thy pain —
This, more than all the Muses' garnered art,
Taught reverence to my eyes, love to my heart;
For thou hadst borne the worst, and learned to bear
All lesser sorrows in one great despair.
O much enduring soul who enterest peace,
Still shall our love for thee on earth increase;
Now, poet, scholar, soldier, on death's plain
Sleep with thy early friends in battle slain!





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