51 Epitaph from the Churchyard at Winchester
HERE sleeps in peace a Hampshire grenadier,
Who caught his death by drinking cold small beer;
Soldiers, be wise from his untimely fall,
And when ye're hot, drink strong, or none at all.
TENNYSON, In Memoriam, XIX
THE Danube to the Severn gave
The darken'd heart that beat no more;
They laid him by the pleasant shore,
And in the hearing of the wave.
There twice a day the Severn fills;
The salt sea-water passes by,
And hushes half the babbling Wye,
And makes a silence in the hills.
The Wye is hush'd nor moved along,
And hush'd my deepest grief of all,
When fill'd with tears that cannot fall
I brim with sorrow drowning song.
The tide flows down, the wave again
Is vocal in its wooded walls;
My deeper anguish also falls,
And I can speak a little then.
HIC Matho de sexta placide legione quiescit,
quem leto calidum frigida posca dedit.
hoc monitus fato, sudans a puluere miles,
aut nihil aut feruens tu bibe, caute, merum.
(i) PECTORA Quintilii nigra torpentia morte
Sabrinae patriis reddidit Hister aquis.
litoris accepit manes secessus amoeni,
adstrepit et surdis auribus unda leuis.
hic bis te, Sabrina, die premit aduena Nereus
fluctibus et salsae praeterit agmen aquae.
tum procul immissos sentit Vaga garrulus aestus
et mediis montes conticuere iugis.
cum sua dedidicit stanti Vaga murmura cursu,
altior immoto stat mihi corde dolor;
mens demersa malo lacrimaeque premunturobortae
torpet et ad uoces ipsa Camena suas.
mox remeant aestus; siluis conclusa sonoris
uocalis solita defluit unda uia:
altus et ille cadit nobis quoque luctus et ore
pauca dolor minuens dat mihi posse loqui.
(ii) PONENDVM ad undae murmura, litore
ponendum amoeno morte grauem nigra
Hister redonauit Sabrinae
Quintilium patriisque terris.
illic amaro bis tumet in dies
Sabrina fluctu, bis penitus Vagae
Neptunus inlapsus loquaci
per iuga iam tacitura uadit.
Vaga quiescente altior et mihi
cor luctus urguet, nec lacrimae genis
labuntur inuitamque mersans
iam dolor ipse tacet Camenam.
aestu relabente adstrepit, ut prius,
uallata siluis unda sonantibus;
nostrique decrescunt dolores
paucaque non uetuere fari.
JAMES MONTGOMERY
HE sought his sire from shore to shore,
He sought him day by day.
The prow he track'd was seen no more
Breasting the ocean-spray.
Yet, as the winds his voyage sped,
He sail'd above his father's head,
Unconscious where it lay,
Deep, deep beneath the rolling main.
-He sought his sire, he sought in vain.
Son of the brave! no longer weep.
Still with affection true,
Along the wild disastrous deep,
Thy father's course pursue.
Full in his wake of glory steer,
His spirit prompts thy bold career,
His compass guides thee through.
So, while thy thunders awe the sea,
Britain shall find thy sire in thee.
TENNYSON, In Memoriam, XCVIII
RISEST thou thus, dim dawn, again,
So loud with voices of the birds,
So thick with lowings of the herds,
Day, when I lost the flower of men;
Who tremblest thro' thy darkling red
On yon swoll'n brook that bubbles fast
By meadows breathing of the past,
And woodlands holy to the dead;
Who murmurest in the foliaged eaves
A song that slights the coming care,
And Autumn laying here and there
A fiery finger on the leaves;
QVAERENS parentem per freta litori
litus, diebus continuat dies;
sed rostra quaesitamque proram
spumiferos superare fluctus
lux uidet ex hac nulla. ferentibus
uentis paternum classe supra caput
currebat, ignarus quid alte
mobilibus premeretur undis.
patrem ille-sed nil, a, pietas ualet.
iam mitte fletus, fortibus edite;
fluctus per insanos, ut olim,
per rapidas pius i procellas.
i natus, ibat qua genitor prius;
recto paternae limite gloriae
cursus gubernentur; ministrat
ille suos animos tuumque
praeclara suadens derigit impetum.
sic, iam tuorum murmura fulminum
ponto reformidante, patrem
reddideris patriae renatum.
IAM tandem tenuis sicine lux redis, argutis auibus clara, boum frequens mugitu, referens, heu, mihi quo uirum flos ille interiit diem ?
quae sublustre rubens lumine turbido spumantem metuis stringere riuulum, lucos qua memores prataque praefluit, sanctorum loca manium;
tectis frondiferis quae strepis, immemor quid turbet ueniens cura, quid indicet Autumnus uarium sollicitans nemus,
tactu sic uagus igneo;
Who wakenest with thy balmy breath
To myriads on the genial earth,
Memories of bridal, or of birth,
And unto myriads more, of death.
O wheresoever those may be,
Betwixt the slumber of the poles,
To-day they count as kindred souls;
They know me not, but mourn with me.
WHEN maidens such as Hester die,
Their place ye may not well supply,
Though ye among a thousand try,
With vain endeavour.
A month or more hath she been dead,
Yet cannot I by force be led
To think upon the wormy bed
And her together.
A springy motion in her gait,
A rising step, did indicate
Of pride and joy no common rate
That flush'd her spirit.
I know not by what name beside
I shall it call:-if 'twas not pride,
It was a joy to that allied
Her parents held the Quaker rule
Which doth the human feeling cool;
But she was trained in Nature's school,
Nature had blest her.
A waking eye, a prying mind,
A heart that stirs, is hard to bind;
A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind,
Ye could not Hester.
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