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Home  »  English Poetry II  »  295. Ode Written in MDCCXLVI

English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

William Collins

295. Ode Written in MDCCXLVI


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

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;

And Freedom shall awhile repair

To dwell, a weeping hermit, there!