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Home  »  The English Poets  »  Ode: ‘How sleep the brave, who sink to rest’

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

William Collins (1721–1759)

Ode: ‘How sleep the brave, who sink to rest’

[Written in the beginning of the year 1746.]

HOW sleep the brave, who sink to rest

By all their country’s wishes blessed!

When spring, with dewy fingers cold,

Returns to deck their hallowed 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 grey,

To bless the turf that wraps their clay;

And Freedom shall awhile repair,

To dwell, a weeping hermit, there!