University of Virginia Library

XXI. A NAMELESS HERO.

SINCE Saul on Gilboa laid him down to die,
Since at Thermopylae, in battle set,
Leonidas the Persian onslaught met
With death-devoted breast, in days gone by,
So, in our own, unasking how or why,
Unnumbered heroes, dying, Life's last debt
Have paid to mother-country. Dulce et
Decorum est pro patriâ mori.
—Yet, most of all who for their native land
Life's service with Death's seal have certified,
The speech of that rude soldier stirs my mood,
Who, gasping out upon the Afric sand
His soul, with choked lungs muttered, “England's good
Enough to die for, isn't she?” And died.
 

A fact, related of one of the Devon men killed in the Boer War. The only alteration which has been made in his dying speech is the omission of the customary trivial epithet, “Wherewith, in these our days, the common folk Their talk do commonly encarnadine.”