Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79.

Sevastopol

Sevastopol

By Edna Dean Proctor (1829–1923)

OVER the Dead is a Syrian sky,

And a light wind blows from the Vale of Baidar;

But what care they as they mutely lie,—

Column and captain, steed and rider?

Tulips and poppies can never bloom

Dear to their slumber as English daisies;

Nor the nightingale’s warble in bowery gloom

Atone for the skylark’s rapturous mazes.

Ghostly cities and nameless graves;—

This is the sum of the battle’s story!

And the wind of Baidar the brown grass waves,

And sighs above them, “Alas for Glory!”