I SAW him last on this terrace proud, | |
| Walking in health and gladness, | |
| Begirt with his court; and in all the crowd | |
| Not a single look of sadness. | |
| |
| Bright was the sun, and the leaves were green, | 5 |
| Blithely the birds were singing, | |
| The cymbal replied to the tambourine, | |
| And the bells were merrily ringing. | |
| |
| I have stood with the crowd beside his bier, | |
| When not a word was spoken; | 10 |
| But every eye was dim with a tear, | |
| And the silence by sobs was broken. | |
| |
| I have heard the earth on his coffin pour | |
| To the muffled drum’s deep rolling, | |
| While the minute-gun with its solemn roar | 15 |
| Drowned the death-bell’s tolling. | |
| |
| The time since he walked in his glory thus, | |
| To the grave till I saw him carried, | |
| Was an age of the mightiest change to us, | |
| But to him a night unvaried. | 20 |
| |
| We have fought the fight; from his lofty throne | |
| The foe of our land we have tumbled; | |
| And it gladdened each eye, save his alone, | |
| For whom that foe we humbled. | |
| |
| A daughter beloved,—a Queen,—a son,— | 25 |
| And a son’s sole child have perished; | |
| And sad was each heart, save the only one | |
| By which they were fondest cherished. | |
| |
| For his eyes were sealed, and his mind was dark, | |
| And he sat in his age’s lateness, | 30 |
| Like a vision throned, as a solemn mark | |
| Of the frailty of human greatness. | |
| |
| His silver beard o’er a bosom spread, | |
| Unvexed by life’s commotion, | |
| Like a yearly-lengthening snow-drift shed | 35 |
| On the calm of a frozen ocean. | |
| |
| O’er him oblivion’s waters boomed, | |
| As the stream of time kept flowing; | |
| And we only heard of our King when doomed | |
| To know that his strength was going. | 40 |
| |
| At intervals thus the waves disgorge, | |
| By weakness rent asunder, | |
| A part of the wreck of the Royal George, | |
| For the people’s pity and wonder. | |
| |
