| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | Waterloo | | By Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846) |
| | | WHY have the Mighty lived—why have they died? | |
| Is it ever thus with idle wreck to strew | |
| Fields such as thine, remorseless Waterloo? | |
| Hopeless the lesson! Vainly hath ever cried | |
| Stern Fate to man—‘So perish human pride!’ | 5 |
| Still must the Many combat for the Few: | |
| Still must the noblest blood fair earth bedew: | |
| Tyrants, slaves, freeman, mouldering side by side! | |
| On such a day the World was lost, and won, | |
| By Pompey at Pharsalia: such a day | 10 |
| Saw glorious Hannibal a fugitive: | |
| So faded ’neath the Macedonian Sun | |
| Persia’s pale star: so empire passed away | |
| From Harold’s brow,—but He disdained to live! | | | | |
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