Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
John Kells Ingram b. 1820The Memory of the Dead
W
Who blushes at the name?
When cowards mock the patriot’s fate,
Who hangs his head for shame?
He ’s all a knave or half a slave
Who slights his country thus;
But a true man, like you, man,
Will fill your glass with us.
The faithful and the few:
Some lie far off beyond the wave,
Some sleep in Ireland, too;
All, all are gone—but still lives on
The fame of those who died:
All true men, like you, men,
Remember them with pride.
Their weary hearts have laid,
And by the stranger’s heedless hands
Their lonely graves were made;
But, though their clay be far away
Beyond the Atlantic foam,
In true men, like you, men,
Their spirit’s still at home.
Among their own they rest;
And the same land that gave them birth
Has caught them to her breast;
And we will pray that from their clay
Full many a race may start
Of true men, like you, men,
To act as brave a part.
To right their native land:
They kindled here a living blaze
That nothing shall withstand.
Alas, that Might can vanquish Right!
They fell, and pass’d away;
But true men, like you, men,
Are plenty here to-day.
For us a guiding light,
To cheer our strife for liberty,
And teach us to unite!
Through good and ill, be Ireland’s still,
Though sad as theirs your fate;
And true men be you, men,
Like those of Ninety-Eight.