Page:Poems of Mrs. Frances B.M. Brotherson.djvu/298

276 CHARLES DICKENS Lay him to rest where regal heads Lie crownless, and unheeding all; Where silence folds its mystic robes Around them like a shadowy pall. Garments of purple may not win Such memories as for him we keep, Nor call so sad a requiem forth, Above their calm, unbroken sleep.

Lay him to rest where poets sleep, Who sang the world's enduring songs-- The cadence of whose wondrous strains. A grateful earth with pride prolongs. Gently around the hallowed spot Floats their remembered minstrelsy; Like them, he breathed his spirit forth, And won an immortality.

Lay him amid the good and great, The lights of many a vanished age; His country claims him, and his fame Is her own brilliant heritage. Footsteps from every clime shall come-- Those by his tender fancies taught, Shall linger round the sacred shrine With memories green, that wither not.