 | Quo Musa Tendis? |  |
63
IN MEMORIAM.
65
1 J. R. Lowell.
Lowell: the labours of your noble life,Your state-craft, and your high poetic skill
Were aye a force that made for union, till
The peace now reigning hushed the ancient strife
Between the mighty land that gave you life,
And that whose kinship distance could not kill.
I think your death has drawn us nearer still!
Now with your praise our island home is rife,
While rings your continent with equal praise;
And here, as there, we sadly quote your lays.
And Lowell! I who knew you, also know
Some that you loved in England, who to-day
Not only share your countless readers' woe,
But mourn a dear old friend that's passed away.
August 13, 1891.
66
2. The Rt. Hon. H. C. Raikes.
No need upon your honoured tomb
The words de Mortuis to write:
For while we mourn your early doom,
Your merits strike on all men's sight.
The words de Mortuis to write:
For while we mourn your early doom,
Your merits strike on all men's sight.
The qualities you chanced to want,
How unimportant they appear:
Whatever fortune did not grant,
The greatest gift of all was there.
How unimportant they appear:
Whatever fortune did not grant,
The greatest gift of all was there.
You never deigned by any shift
Your share of daily toil to shirk:
You had the grand essential gift—
Capacity for honest work.
Your share of daily toil to shirk:
You had the grand essential gift—
Capacity for honest work.
By work you lived, by work you died,
And earned a name, if any can,
That's almost always misapplied,
An honest English Working Man.
And earned a name, if any can,
That's almost always misapplied,
An honest English Working Man.
And I, who dared in boyhood's day
To write, in later years to print,
A somewhat disrespectful lay,
—Though there was naught of malice in't—
To write, in later years to print,
A somewhat disrespectful lay,
—Though there was naught of malice in't—
67
Should like to say I'm not the last
To recognise your sterling worth:
Forgive my strictures of the past,
The overflow of harmless mirth;
To recognise your sterling worth:
Forgive my strictures of the past,
The overflow of harmless mirth;
For this at least is wholly true;
I should be more than satisfied
To work as well and hard as you,
To die in harness, as you died.
I should be more than satisfied
To work as well and hard as you,
To die in harness, as you died.
Sept. 1891.
| Quo Musa Tendis? | |