Valete Tennyson and other Memorial Poems by H. D. Rawnsley |
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On hearing Lord Tennyson read his Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.
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23
On hearing Lord Tennyson read his Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington.
Great builder of this monument of sound
To him whose praise shall never cease to be,
As long as hearts beat fast for victory,
Or laurels grow on any English ground!—
Oh! how my heart and how mine ears were bound,
Hearing the boom of that articulate sea
Which, wave on wave of wondrous melody,
Flowed in from deeps of gratefulness profound!
To him whose praise shall never cease to be,
As long as hearts beat fast for victory,
Or laurels grow on any English ground!—
Oh! how my heart and how mine ears were bound,
Hearing the boom of that articulate sea
Which, wave on wave of wondrous melody,
Flowed in from deeps of gratefulness profound!
The sands may chafe old Chephren's pyramid,
The Colosseum crumble and decay,
Yea, even the Dome that shows the golden cross
Sink with its whisper of a nation's loss—
And the world-victor's victor's tomb be hid—
But this sonorous cenotaph shall stay.
The Colosseum crumble and decay,
Yea, even the Dome that shows the golden cross
Sink with its whisper of a nation's loss—
And the world-victor's victor's tomb be hid—
But this sonorous cenotaph shall stay.
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