University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Rhodes Memorial at Oxford

The Work of Cecil Rhodes: A Sonnet-Sequence: By Theodore Watts-Dunton
Watts-Dunton, Theodore (1832-1914)

collapse section 
The Work of Cecil Rhodes
 I. 
I The Quest is the Crown
 II. 
II Great Souls live long
  
III Clive and Rhodes
  
IV The Burial in the Granite Caves
  
V The Spirit of Africa to Rhodes
  
VI The Haunted Matoppos
  
VII Old Africa and New
  
VIII The Captains of the Past

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section The Rhodes Memorial at Oxford
no next section
28

VIII
The Captains of the Past

Brother of those who, ere our England threw
Her arms around the world, steered out to roam,
'Neath sails of Wonder, o'er the trackless foam,
I think I see them standing there with you
At azure gates within yon sky so blue,
So pure, it seems like Heaven's own sapphire dome—
Standing and gazing on your wondrous home
Where sleeps a hero's dust—the wild ‘World's View’.
29

I hear them saying,—those Captains of the Past,—
All of Old England's hero-pedigree,
From him who drove the Spaniard from the sea
To him who nailed his colours to the mast—
‘Pray God ye be not burying there the last
Of England's sons who keep her strong and free!’
previous section The Rhodes Memorial at Oxford
no next section