Newdigate Prize Poem Raleigh. Recited in The Theatre, June 9, 1880, by Rennell Rodd |
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[Not that I knew to sing of him aright—] |
 | Newdigate Prize Poem |  |
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[Not that I knew to sing of him aright—]
Not that I knew to sing of him aright—For all the unsung hero-lives of old
Shall find no hero-singer now, to mould
And carve the sculptured epic of their might;
But rather that this tale of mine re-told,—
These stray thoughts gathered on an autumn night,—
Have grown, like him, a little over-bold
To crave some fleeting favour in your sight;
And chiefly for his own name's sake, whose sires
Were sires of mine, along the windy ways,
And stormy Western shores—let those dead days
Re-dawn to hearten all faint hope that tires,
And breathe on others as they breathed on me,
Like some glad wind blown shoreward from the sea.
| Newdigate Prize Poem | |