XXXVIII.
ON THE DEATH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.
‘Strange that on the bloodless field of Statesmanship death should
come with the suddenness, the violence, and the anguish of War!’
Times, July 3, 1850.
I
War spares her favourite children. Heroes greet
The gentler day of bloodless victories:
The hundred fights are won, the warrior feet
Tread in the laurell'd paths of golden ease.
II
But fate had stored a lightning stroke for thee,
The dark and violent death that waits on strife;
E'en when thou seem'dst from touch of harm most free,
Set in the calm maturity of life.
III
We cannot all repress the heart's lament:
We need the guiding accents of the sage:
Too soon he purchased his enfranchisement:
He should have gone down to the grave in age.
IV
We weep the blow that brought him that release:
Want's long endurant cry his aidance claims:
He should have gone down to the grave in peace:
So had his end been equall'd with his aims.
V
Alas! for high anticipated deeds:
High present glories: recollections high:
For censure, that misunderstanding breeds:
For plans, that fail'd of full maturity!
VI
Alas! for death that came with pain, with haste,
Shorn of the pomp and circumstance of strife!
—Yet glory round the dying Great is cast:
Their sunset takes a lustre from their life.
VII
Not all that clad the Brave and Wise in glory
Is hid within the darkness where they lie.
—Thou art incorporate with England's story,
Entreasured in a nation's memory.
