 | Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich |  |
21
Lander
I.
Close his bleak eyes—they shall no more
Flash victory where the common roar;
And lay the battered sabre at his side,
(His to the last, for so he would have died!)
Flash victory where the common roar;
And lay the battered sabre at his side,
(His to the last, for so he would have died!)
Though he no more may pluck from out its sheath
The sinewy lightning that dealt traitors death.
Lead the worn war-horse by the pluméd bier—
Even his horse, now he is dead, is dear!
The sinewy lightning that dealt traitors death.
Lead the worn war-horse by the pluméd bier—
Even his horse, now he is dead, is dear!
222
Fame
Of all the thousand verses you have writ,If Time spare none, you will not care at all;
If Time spare one, you will not know of it:
Nor shame nor fame can scale a churchyard wall.
224
Omar Khayyám.
(After Fitzgerald.)Sultan and slave alike have gone their way
With Bahrám Gúr, but whither none may say;
Yet he who charmed the wise at Naishápúr
Seven centuries since still charms the wise today.
Herrick
It often chances that the staunchest boatGoes down in seas whereon a leaf might float.
What mighty epics have been wrecked by Time
Since Herrick launched his cockle-shells of rhyme!
| Poems of Thomas Bailey Aldrich | |