University of Virginia Library

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT CARNOT

40
What voice is that which o'er the ocean

What voice is that which o'er the ocean,
Through what is lit and what obscure no less,
Night's coruscations and its darknesses,
Still rises starward, linking man to man?
It is the sorrow metropolitan
Of all earth's kings, the voice of their distress
For one who never sought their crown or dress,
The gentle-manner'd good republican.
Our England, too, sends France across the deep
Love's message no new wars shall ever shake,
Her human sense of all that comes with time;
The dreams which are the hopes of men asleep,
The hopes which are the dreams of men awake,
The tragedy around life's pantomime.

41
Beside the dead man two veil'd women sit

Beside the dead man two veil'd women sit;
All the night long over the catafalque
Twelve tapers burn; from many a precious stalk
Lilies as white as sunshine ever lit
Their fine funereal fragrancy emit.
‘Trifles!’
Yet outside do the heedless walk,
Outside the Elysée the godless talk,
Outside the Elysée is prayerless wit.
Within, the quiet demonstration lies
That the one strength which makes the struggler true
Is in the silent sweetness of belief,
Is in the triple immortalities
Call'd God, creed, prayer. Thus we console our grief,
And half the heav'n of France grows almost blue.