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At Night, in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor
THE CASTLE clock had tolled midnight; | |
| With mattock and with spade, | |
| And silent, by the torches’ light, | |
| His corse in earth we laid. | |
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| The coffin bore his name, that those | 5 |
| Of other years might know, | |
| When earth its secrets should disclose, | |
| Whose bones were laid below. | |
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| “Peace to the dead” no children sung, | |
| Slow pacing up the nave; | 10 |
| No prayers were read, no knell was rung, | |
| As deep we dug his grave. | |
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| We only heard the winter’s wind, | |
| In many a sullen gust, | |
| As o’er the open grave inclined, | 15 |
| We murmured, “Dust to dust!” | |
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| A moonbeam, from the arches’ height, | |
| Streamed, as we placed the stone; | |
| The long aisles started into light, | |
| And all the windows shone. | 20 |
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| We thought we saw the banners then, | |
| That shook along the walls, | |
| While the sad shades of mailéd men | |
| Were gazing from the stalls. | |
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| ’T is gone! again, on tombs defaced, | 25 |
| Sits darkness more profound, | |
| And only, by the torch, we traced | |
| The shadows on the ground. | |
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| And now the chilly, freezing air | |
| Without blew long and loud; | 30 |
| Upon our knees we breathed one prayer | |
| Where he slept in his shroud. | |
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| We laid the broken marble floor,— | |
| No name, no trace appears,— | |
| And when we closed the sounding door, | 35 |
| We thought of him with tears. | |
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