| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The Two Old Kings | | By Lord de Tabley (John Byrne Leicester Warren) (1835–1895) |
| | | IN ruling well what guerdon? Life runs low, | |
| As yonder lamp upon the hour-glass lies, | |
| Waning and wasted. We are great and wise, | |
| But Love is gone; and Silence seems to grow | |
| Along the misty road where we must go. | 5 |
| From summits near the morning star’s uprise | |
| Death comes, a shadow from the northern skies, | |
| As, when all leaves are down, there comes the snow. | |
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| Brother and King, we hold our last carouse. | |
| One loving-cup we drain and then farewell. | 10 |
| The night is spent: the crystal morning ray | |
| Calls us, as soldiers laurell’d on our brows, | |
| To march undaunted while the clarions swell— | |
| Heroic hearts, upon our lonely way. | | | | |
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