Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.
The Sleeper of Marathon
By Felicia Hemans (17931835)I
And by the funeral mound,
Where those who died not there in vain
Their place of sleep had found.
’T was silent where the free blood gushed,
When Persia came arrayed,—
So many a voice had there been hushed,
So many a footstep stayed.
So sanctified by Death,—
I slumbered,—but my rest was not
As theirs who lay beneath.
For on my dreams, that shadowy hour,
They rose,—the chainless dead,—
All armed they sprang, in joy, in power,
Up from their grassy bed.
Flash as in time gone by,—
Chased to the seas, without his shield
I saw the Persian fly.
I woke,—the sudden trumpet’s blast
Called to another fight,—
From visions of our glorious past,
Who doth not wake in might?