Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/109

Rh To mourn the vanished beam, and add our mite

Of praise in payment of a long delight

Ye Orators! whom yet our councils yield,

Mourn for the veteran Hero of your field!

The worthy rival of the wondrous Three!

Whose words were sparks of Immortality!

Ye Bards! to whom the Drama's Muse is dear,

He was your Master—emulate him here!

Ye men of wit and social eloquence!

He was your brother—bear his ashes hence!

While Powers of mind almost of boundless range,

Complete in kind, as various in their change,

While Eloquence—Wit—Poesy—and Mirth,

That humbler Harmonist of care on Earth,

Survive within our souls—while lives our sense

Of pride in Merit's proud pre-eminence,

Long shall we seek his likeness—long in vain,

And turn to all of him which may remain,

Sighing that Nature formed but one such man,

And broke the die—in moulding Sheridan!