English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
| |
| 295. Ode Written in MDCCXLVI |
| | | William Collins (1720–1759) |
| |
| |
| HOW sleep the Brave, who sink to rest | |
| By all their Country’s wishes blest! | |
| When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, | |
| Returns to deck their hallow’d mould, | |
| She there shall dress a sweeter sod | 5 |
| Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod. | |
| |
| By fairy hands their knell is rung, | |
| By forms unseen their dirge is sung: | |
| There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray, | |
| To bless the turf that wraps their clay; | 10 |
| And Freedom shall awhile repair | |
| To dwell, a weeping hermit, there! | |
| |
|
|
|
