CXXII. HOMERIC UNITY. THE sacred keep of Ilion is rent With shaft and pit; vague waters wander slow In rich Mycenæ, do the Fates relent; The awful dust and treasures of the Dead Has Learning scattered wide; but vainly thee, Homer, she measures with her Lesbian lead, And strives to rend thy songs: too blind is she To know the crown on thine immortal head Of indivisible supremacy. ANDREW LANG. CXXIII. COLONEL BURNABY. THOU that on every field of earth and sky Didst hunt for Death-that seemed to flee and fear-. How great and greatly fallen dost thou lie Slain in the Desert by some wandering spear! "Not here," alas! may England say-"not here Nor in this quarrel was it meet to die, But in that dreadful battle drawing nigh, To shake the Afghan passes strait and sheer." Like Aias by the Ships shouldst thou have stood, And in some glen have stayed the stream of flight, The pillar of thy people and their shield, Till Helmund or till Indus ran with blood, And back, towards the Northlands and the Night The stricken Eagles scattered from the field. CXXIV. SOMETHING LOST. How changed is Nature from the Time antique! EDWARD CRACROFT LEFROY. CXXV. ON THE BEACH IN NOVEMBER. My heart's Ideal, that somewhere out of sight Haply, where blue Saronic waves are blown O Shade-form, lovelier than the living crowd, So free to human fancies, fancy-free, My vagrant thought goes out to thee, to thee, CXXVI. A THOUGHT FROM PINDAR. (Nem. V.) TWIN immortalities man's art doth give To man: both fair; both noble; one supreme. It cannot break its stone-eternal dream, To every town where aught of soul doth stir, Through street and market borne, at camp and game, And on the lips and in the hearts of men! |