AH, Wolfe! the mention of thy name
Damps in my breast th’ heroic flame,
And gloomy scenes far other thoughts inspire;
Smit by thy truly noble deeds,
Brave man, my conscious bosom bleeds,
To think such merit should so soon expire.
And shall thy martial lay
Triumphantly display
Britannia’s victories?
And not the funeral strain
In pensive moans complain,
When ah! perhaps her bravest hero dies?
Yes, thou shalt now my thoughts employ;
Awhile I’ll bid adieu to joy,
And in soft misery mourn;
Awhile my cheerful tongue
Shall drop the gay, unfinished song,
And sing the dirge funereal o’er thy urn.
Britain, dear shade, indignant grieves
To be victorious at thy cost;
She mourns thy fall, and scarce believes
The conquest glorious where her Wolfe is lost.
While she triumphant twines
For her surviving sons the laurel wreath
To martial merit due,
Struck by thy hapless fate, she joins
The cypress and the yew,
To mourn her loss and theirs in thy lamented death.
But thou couldst not repine;
Thou freely wouldst resign
In Britain’s cause thy breath;
Couldst act the patriot’s part,
And bear thy country on thy heart,
Even while it languished in the pangs of death.
As once the Decii certain death defied,
T’insure Rome conquest, and, devoted, died;
As Curtius, noble youth! intrepid braved
The gulf wide yawning, and his country saved, –
So thou, brave Wolfe, durst, at the heavenly call,
Rush into Ruin’s open jaws;
Thus like those heroes didst thou greatly fall,
Thyself devoted in thy country’s cause.
Long as Quebec shall rear aloft her head,
Long as her rocks her stable walls sustain,
Long as Laureutius in his spacious bed
Rolls his vast tide of waters to the main,-
So long, O Wolfe, thy memory shall bloom,
And deathless laurels flourish on thy tomb.
(Benjamin Young Prime)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Success Poems, Fate & Destiny Poems, Courage Poems, Memory Poems, Inspirational PoemsBased on Keywords: languished, intrepid, insure, smit, wolfe, quebec, curtius