Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Funeral of Charles the First
By William Lisle Bowles (17621850)T
With mattock and with spade,
And silent, by the torches’ light,
His corse in earth we laid.
Of other years might know,
When earth its secrets should disclose,
Whose bones were laid below.
Slow pacing up the nave;
No prayers were read, no knell was rung,
As deep we dug his grave.
In many a sullen gust,
As o’er the open grave inclined,
We murmured, “Dust to dust!”
Streamed, as we placed the stone;
The long aisles started into light,
And all the windows shone.
That shook along the walls,
While the sad shades of mailéd men
Were gazing from the stalls.
Sits darkness more profound,
And only, by the torch, we traced
The shadows on the ground.
Without blew long and loud;
Upon our knees we breathed one prayer
Where he slept in his shroud.
No name, no trace appears,—
And when we closed the sounding door,
We thought of him with tears.