ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
With an empire's lamentation;
Let us bury the Great Duke
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation, –
Mourning when their leaders fall,
Warriors carry the warrior's pall,
And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall.
Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore?
Here, in streaming London's central roar,
Let the sound of those he wrought for,
And the feet of those he fought for,
Echo round his bones for evermore.
Lead out the pageant: sad and slow,
As fits a universal woe,
Let the long, long procession go,
And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow,
And let the mournful martial music blow:
The last great Englishman is low.
Mourn; for to us he seems the last,
Remembering all his greatness in the past.
No more in soldier fashion will he greet
With lifted hand the gazer in the street.
O friends! our chief state-oracle is dead :
Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood,
The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,
Whole in himself, a common good;
Mourn for the man of amplest influence,
Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
Our greatest, yet with least pretense,
Great in council and great in war,
Foremost captain of his time,
Rich in saving common sense,
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime.
O good gray head which all men knew!
O voice from which their omens all men drew!
O iron nerve to true occasion true!
Oh, fallen at length that tower of strength
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew! Such was he whom we deplore.
The long self-sacrifice of life is o'er:
The great world-victor's victor will be seen no more.
Render thanks to the Giver,
England, for thy son;
Let the bell be tolled;
Render thanks to the Giver,
And render him to the mold.
Under the cross of gold
That shines over city and river,
There he shall rest for ever
Among the wise and the bold.
Let the bell be tolled,
And a reverent people behold
The towering car, the sable steeds :
Bright let it be with his blazoned deeds,
Dark in its funeral fold.
Let the bell be tolled;
And a deeper knell in the heart be knolled;
And the sound of the sorrowing anthem rolled
Through the dome of the golden cross;
And the volleying cannon thunder his loss.
He knew their voices of old;
For many a time in many a clime
His captain's ear has heard them boom,
Bellowing victory, bellowing doom;
When he with those deep voices wrought,
Guarding realms and kings from shame;
With those deep voices our dead captain taught
The tyrant, and asserts his claim
In that dread sound to the great name
Which he has worn so pure of blame,
In praise and in dispraise the same, -
A man of well-attempered frame.
O civic Muse! to such a name,
To such a name for ages long,
Preserve a broad approach of fame,
And ever-ringing avenues of song.
"Who is he that cometh, like an honored guest,
With banner and with music, with soldier and with priest,
With a nation weeping, and breaking on my rest?"
Mighty seaman, this is he
Was great by land as thou by sea.
Thine island loves thee well, thou famous man,
The greatest sailor since our world began.
Now, to the roll of muffled drums,
To thee the greatest soldier comes;
Was great by land as thou by sea.
His foes were thine; he kept us free.
Oh! give him welcome: this is he,
Worthy of our gorgeous rites,
And worthy to be laid by thee;
For this is England's greatest son,·
He that gained a hundred fights,
Nor ever lost an English gun;
This is he, that far away,
Against the myriads of Assaye,
Clashed with his fiery few, and won;
And underneath another sun,
Warring on a later day,
Round affrighted Lisbon drew
The treble works, the vast designs,
Of his labored rampart-lines,
Where he greatly stood at bay;
Whence he issued forth anew,
And ever great and greater grew,
Beating from the wasted vines
Back to France her banded swarms,
Back to France with countless blows,
Till o'er the hills her eagles flew
Past the Pyrenean pines,
Followed up in valley and glen
With blare of bugle, clamor of men,
Roll of cannon, and clash of arms,
And England pouring on her foes:
Such a war had such a close.
Again their ravening eagle rose
In anger, wheeled on Europe-shadowing wings, And barking for the thrones of kings ;
Till one, that sought but Duty's iron crown,
On that loud sabbath shook the spoiler down:
A day of onsets of despair!
Dashed on every rocky square,
Their surging charges foamed themselves away. Last, the Prussian trumpet blew:
Through the long-tormented air
Heaven flashed a sudden jubilant ray;
And down we swept and charged and overthrew.
So great a soldier taught us there
What long-enduring hearts could do
In that world's-earthquake, Waterloo!
Mighty seaman, tender and true,
And pure as he from taint of craven guile,
O savior of the silver-coasted isle!
O shaker of the Baltic and the Nile!
If aught of things that here befall
Touch a spirit among things divine,
If love of country move thee there at all,
Be glad because his bones are laid by thine
And through the centuries let a people's voice,
In full acclaim,
The proof and echo of all human fame,
A people's voice, when they rejoice
At civic revel and pomp and game,
Attest their great commander's claim
With honor, honor, honor to him, —
Eternal honor to his name."
A people's voice! We are a people yet.
Though all men else their nobler dreams forget,
Confused by brainless mobs and lawless powers,
Thank Him who isled us here, and roughly set
His Saxon in blown seas and storming showers,
We have a voice with which to pay the debt
Of boundless love and reverence and regret
To those great men who fought, and kept it ours.
And keep it ours, O God! from brute control.
O statesmen! guard us; guard the eye, the soul,
Of Europe; keep our noble England whole,
And save the one true seed of freedom sown
Betwixt a people and their ancient throne, —
That sober freedom out of which there springs
Our loyal passion for our temperate kings:
For, saving that, ye help to save mankind,
Till public wrong be crumbled into dust;
And drill the raw world for the march of mind,
Till crowds at length be sane, and crowns be just.
But wink no more in slothful overtrust.
Remember him who led your hosts:
He bade you guard the sacred coasts.
Your cannons molder on the seaward wall:
His voice is silent in your council-hall
For ever, and, whatever tempests lower,
For ever silent; even if they broke
In thunder, silent: yet remember all
He spoke among you, and the man who spoke;
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
Nor paltered with Eternal God for power;
Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow
Through either babbling world of high and low;
Whose life was work, whose language rife
With rugged maxims hewn from life;
Who never spoke against a foe;
Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke
All great self-seekers trampling on the right.
Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named;
Truth-lover was our English Duke:
Whatever record leap to light,
He never shall he shamed.
Lo! the leader in these glorious wars
Now to glorious burial slowly borne,
Followed by the brave of other lands,
He on whom from both her open hands
Lavish Honor showered all her stars,
And affluent Fortune emptied all her horn.
Yea, let all good things await
Him who cares not to be great
But as he saves or serves the State.
Not once or twice in our rough island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory.
He that walks it, only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden
Love of self, before his journey closes
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting
Into glossy purples which outredden
All voluptuous garden-roses.
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