The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery Collected and Revised by the Author |
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VETERANS AND MOURNERS. |
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 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
XIII. VETERANS AND MOURNERS.
But turn we to a nobler theme.
How mournful, then, their martial dream
Who, while around them tramp and stir
The Herald, Troop, and Trumpeter,
Were haunted with a blent array
Of scenes which ne'er dissolve away;
And imaged forth with mind's creative eye
The Man who taught them how to dare, and die,
As, trench'd with many a battle-scar,
The white-hair'd Veterans of war
Gather and group beside yon bier,
And scarce can hide the welling tear!
How mournful, then, their martial dream
Who, while around them tramp and stir
The Herald, Troop, and Trumpeter,
Were haunted with a blent array
Of scenes which ne'er dissolve away;
And imaged forth with mind's creative eye
The Man who taught them how to dare, and die,
As, trench'd with many a battle-scar,
The white-hair'd Veterans of war
Gather and group beside yon bier,
And scarce can hide the welling tear!
Past sharers in dread fields of blood
Full oft with him these comrades stood,
When valour beam'd from that victorious brow
Which cold in coffin'd death lay plumeless now!
And could they view those guns, whose dauntless roar
Thunder'd proud Albion's name from shore to shore,
Or on the steed, array'd in boot and spur,
Fix their sad eyes, nor feel the dead Past stir
Within them, like a living thought
With years of resurrection fraught?
On Torres Vedras' bulwark'd lines
Again the flag of England shines!
Vimiera's field, and Salamanca's fight,
And Talavera's, when it roused the night,
Sebastian's siege, and Badajos' return,
And Albuera, with its conflict stern:
Visions of battle and campaign arise
And flash before their unforgetting eyes!—
From the first laurel gain'd at dread Assaye,
To the red carnage on that thrilling day
Embalm'd for ever in sublime renown,
When England struck the Gallic Eagle down,
And the War-Fiend, who half a world had won,
Sank wither'd by the blast of Wellington!
Full oft with him these comrades stood,
When valour beam'd from that victorious brow
Which cold in coffin'd death lay plumeless now!
And could they view those guns, whose dauntless roar
Thunder'd proud Albion's name from shore to shore,
Or on the steed, array'd in boot and spur,
Fix their sad eyes, nor feel the dead Past stir
Within them, like a living thought
With years of resurrection fraught?
On Torres Vedras' bulwark'd lines
Again the flag of England shines!
Vimiera's field, and Salamanca's fight,
And Talavera's, when it roused the night,
Sebastian's siege, and Badajos' return,
And Albuera, with its conflict stern:
Visions of battle and campaign arise
And flash before their unforgetting eyes!—
From the first laurel gain'd at dread Assaye,
To the red carnage on that thrilling day
539
When England struck the Gallic Eagle down,
And the War-Fiend, who half a world had won,
Sank wither'd by the blast of Wellington!
Thus, round the coffin of th' heroic Dead
A living atmosphere of love is spread
That glows with hist'ry, till the pluméd bier
Is almost hidden by a warrior's tear.
The shock of Armies, and the battle-shout
Of charging Valour, when it put to rout
Column and cavalry in fierce attack,
Ring through his brain, and bring the dead Years back:
Till fancy hears the loud “Hurrah!”
That Picton raised at Quatre-Bras
Where royal Brunswick closed his eye,
While, bivouack'd beneath the sky,
Some bleeding sentinel who watch'd the night
Heard the last bugle that bewail'd the fight.
A living atmosphere of love is spread
That glows with hist'ry, till the pluméd bier
Is almost hidden by a warrior's tear.
The shock of Armies, and the battle-shout
Of charging Valour, when it put to rout
Column and cavalry in fierce attack,
Ring through his brain, and bring the dead Years back:
Till fancy hears the loud “Hurrah!”
That Picton raised at Quatre-Bras
Where royal Brunswick closed his eye,
While, bivouack'd beneath the sky,
Some bleeding sentinel who watch'd the night
Heard the last bugle that bewail'd the fight.
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |