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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  704. Blow, Bugle, blow

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Alfred Tennyson, Lord Tennyson. 1809–1892

704. Blow, Bugle, blow

    THE splendour falls on castle walls 
      And snowy summits old in story: 
    The long light shakes across the lakes, 
      And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,         5
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 
 
    O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, 
      And thinner, clearer, farther going! 
    O sweet and far from cliff and scar 
      The horns of Elfland faintly blowing!  10
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: 
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 
 
    O love, they die in yon rich sky, 
      They faint on hill or field or river: 
    Our echoes roll from soul to soul,  15
      And grow for ever and for ever. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying.