59. The Exile at Rest by John Pierpont. Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. 1900. An American Anthology, 1787-1900

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

59. The Exile at Rest

By John Pierpont


HIS falchion flashed along the Nile;
His hosts he led through Alpine snows;
O’er Moscow’s towers, that shook the while,
His eagle flag unrolled,—and froze.

Here sleeps he now, alone;—not one	5
Of all the kings whose crowns he gave,
Nor sire, nor brother, wife, nor son,
Hath ever seen or sought his grave.

Here sleeps he now, alone;—the star,
That led him on from crown to crown,	10
Hath sunk;—the nations from afar
Gazed, as it faded and went down.

He sleeps alone;—the mountain cloud
That night hangs round him, and the breath
Of morning scatters, is the shroud	15
That wraps his martial form in death.

High is his couch;—the ocean flood
Far, far below by storms is curled,
As round him heaved, while high he stood,
A stormy and inconstant world.	20

Hark! Comes there from the Pyramids,
And from Siberia’s waste of snow,
And Europe’s fields, a voice that bids
The world be awed to mourn him?—No;—

The only, the perpetual dirge,	25
That ’s heard here, is the sea-bird’s cry,
The mournful murmur of the surge,
The cloud’s deep voice, the wind’s low sigh.