Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/721

 In all their touching beauty to redeem? And did their soft lips kiss the Sepulchre? Alas! the lovely pageant as a dream Faded! They sank not through ignoble fear; They felt not Moslem steel. By mountain, stream, In sands, in fens, they died—no mother near!

CHARLES WOLFE

1791-1823

603. The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the rampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where our hero we buried

We buried him darkly at dead of night, The sods with our bayonets turning, By the struggling moonbeam's misty light And the lanthorn dimly burning.

No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him; But he lay like a warrior taking his rest With his martial cloak around him.

Few and short were the prayers we said, And we spoke not a word of sorrow; But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead, And we bitterly thought of the morrow.