Lead out the pageant: sad and slow,
As fits a universal woe,
Let the long, long procession go,
And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow, And let the mournful martial music blow: The last great Englishman is low.
Mourn; for to us he seems the last, Remembering all his greatness in the past. No more in soldier fashion will he greet With lifted hand the gazer in the street. O friends! our chief state-oracle is dead : Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood, The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute, Whole in himself, a common good; Mourn for the man of amplest influence, Yet clearest of ambitious crime, Our greatest, yet with least pretense, Great in council and great in war, Foremost captain of his time, Rich in saving common sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime.
O good gray head which all men knew!
O voice from which their omens all men drew!
O iron nerve to true occasion true!
Oh, fallen at length that tower of strength
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew! Such was he whom we deplore.
The long self-sacrifice of life is o'er:
The great world-victor's victor will be seen no more.
Render thanks to the Giver, England, for thy son; Let the bell be tolled; Render thanks to the Giver, And render him to the mold. Under the cross of gold
That shines over city and river,
There he shall rest for ever Among the wise and the bold.
Let the bell be tolled,
And a reverent people behold
The towering car, the sable steeds:
Bright let it be with his blazoned deeds,
Dark in its funeral fold.
Let the bell be tolled;
And a deeper knell in the heart be knolled; And the sound of the sorrowing anthem rolled Through the dome of the golden cross; And the volleying cannon thunder his loss. He knew their voices of old;
For many a time in many a clime His captain's ear has heard them boom, Bellowing victory, bellowing doom; When he with those deep voices wrought, Guarding realms and kings from shame; With those deep voices our dead captain taught The tyrant, and asserts his claim
In that dread sound to the great name Which he has worn so pure of blame, In praise and in dispraise the same, - A man of well-attempered frame. O civic Muse! to such a name, To such a name for ages long,
Preserve a broad approach of fame,
And ever-ringing avenues of song.
"Who is he that cometh, like an honored guest,
With banner and with music, with soldier and with priest,
With a nation weeping, and breaking on my rest?"
Mighty seaman, this is he
Was great by land as thou by sea.
Thine island loves thee well, thou famous man,—
The greatest sailor since our world began.
Now, to the roll of muffled drums,
To thee the greatest soldier comes;
Was great by land as thou by sea. His foes were thine; he kept us free. Oh! give him welcome: this is he, Worthy of our gorgeous rites, And worthy to be laid by thee; For this is England's greatest son,- He that gained a hundred fights, Nor ever lost an English gun; This is he, that far away, Against the myriads of Assaye, Clashed with his fiery few, and won; And underneath another sun,
Warring on a later day,
Round affrighted Lisbon drew The treble works, the vast designs, Of his labored rampart-lines, Where he greatly stood at bay; Whence he issued forth anew, And ever great and greater grew,
Beating from the wasted vines
Back to France her banded swarms,
Back to France with countless blows, Till o'er the hills her eagles flew Past the Pyrenean pines,
Followed up in valley and glen With blare of bugle, clamor of men, Roll of cannon, and clash of arms, And England pouring on her foes: Such a war had such a close.
Again their ravening eagle rose
In anger, wheeled on Europe-shadowing wings, And barking for the thrones of kings;
Till one, that sought but Duty's iron crown, On that loud sabbath shook the spoiler down: A day of onsets of despair!
Dashed on every rocky square,
Their surging charges foamed themselves away. Last, the Prussian trumpet blew :
Through the long-tormented air
Heaven flashed a sudden jubilant ray;
And down we swept and charged and overthrew.
So great a soldier taught us there
What long-enduring hearts could do
In that world's-earthquake, Waterloo! Mighty seaman, tender and true,
And pure as he from taint of craven guile, O savior of the silver-coasted isle!
O shaker of the Baltic and the Nile!
If aught of things that here befall
a spirit among things divine,
If love of country move thee there at all, Be glad because his bones are laid by thine And through the centuries let a people's voice, In full acclaim,
The proof and echo of all human fame,
A people's voice, when they rejoice
At civic revel and pomp and game,
Attest their great commander's claim With honor, honor, honor to him, — Eternal honor to his name."
A people's voice! We are a people yet. Though all men else their nobler dreams forget, Confused by brainless mobs and lawless powers, Thank Him who isled us here, and roughly set His Saxon in blown seas and storming showers, We have a voice with which to pay the debt Of boundless love and reverence and regret To those great men who fought, and kept it ours.
And keep it ours, O God! from brute control. O statesmen! guard us; guard the eye, the soul, Of Europe; keep our noble England whole, And save the one true seed of freedom sown Betwixt a people and their ancient throne, — That sober freedom out of which there springs Our loyal passion for our temperate kings: For, saving that, ye help to save mankind, Till public wrong be crumbled into dust; And drill the raw world for the march of mind, Till crowds at length be sane, and crowns be just. But wink no more in slothful overtrust.
He bade you guard the sacred coasts.
Your cannons molder on the seaward wall: His voice is silent in your council-hall For ever, and, whatever tempests lower, For ever silent; even if they broke In thunder, silent: yet remember all
He spoke among you, and the man who spoke; Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor paltered with Eternal God for power; Who let the turbid streams of rumor flow Through either babbling world of high and low; Whose life was work, whose language rife With rugged maxims hewn from life; Who never spoke against a foe;
Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke All great self-seekers trampling on the right. Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named; Truth-lover was our English Duke: Whatever record leap to light,
He never shall he shamed.
Lo! the leader in these glorious wars Now to glorious burial slowly borne, Followed by the brave of other lands, — He on whom from both her open hands Lavish Honor showered all her stars, And affluent Fortune emptied all her horn. Yea, let all good things await Him who cares not to be great
But as he saves or serves the State.
Not once or twice in our rough island-story, The path of duty was the way to glory. He that walks it, only thirsting
For the right, and learns to deaden Love of self, before his journey closes
He shall find the stubborn thistle bursting Into glossy purples which outredden All voluptuous garden-roses.
Not once or twice in our fair island-story, The path of duty was the way to glory. He that, ever following her commands, On with toil of heart and knees and hands, Through the long gorge to the far light has won His path upward, and prevailed,
Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled Are close upon the shining table-lands
To which our God himself is moon and sun. Such was he: his work is done.
But, while the races of mankind endure, Let his great example stand
Colossal, seen of every land,
And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure,
Till in all lands, and through all human story,
The path of duty be the way to glory.
And let the land whose hearths he saved from shame, For many and many an age proclaim
At civic revel and pomp and game,
And when the long-illumined cities flame, Their ever-loyal iron leader's fame,
With honor, honor, honor, honor to him,— Eternal honor to his name.
Peace! his triumph will be sung By some yet unmolded tongue
Far on in summers that we shall not see.
Peace! it is a day of pain
For one about whose patriarchal knee
Late the little children clung.
Oh, peace! it is a day of pain
For one upon whose hand and heart and brain
Once the weight and fate of Europe hung.
Ours the pain be his the gain!
More than is of man's degree
Must be with us, watching here At this our great solemnity. Whom we see not we revere; We revere, and we refrain
From talk of battles loud and vain,
And brawling memories all too free For such a wise humility
As befits a solemn fane:
We revere; and, while we hear The tides of Music's golden sea Setting toward eternity,
Uplifted high in heart and hope are we, Until we doubt not that for one so true
There must be other, nobler work to do Than when he fought at Waterloo; And victor he must ever be.
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