Verse > Anthologies > James and Mary Ford, eds. > Every Day in the Year
  PREVIOUSNEXT  
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
James and Mary Ford, eds.  Every Day in the Year.  1902.
 
January 17
Colonel Burnaby
By Andrew Lang (1844–1912)
 
          A distinguished English traveler, soldier, and author. Best known by his “Ride to Khiva,” which described his journey thither across the steppes. He was war correspondent at one time for the London Times. He was killed Jan. 17, 1885, at Abu Klea by a spear wound while rallying his men.

THOU that on every field of earth and sky
  Didst hunt for Death—that seemed to flee and fear—
How great and greatly fallen dost thou lie
  Slain in the Desert by some wandering spear!
  “Not here,” alas! may England say—“not here        5
Nor in this quarrel was it meet to die,
But in that dreadful battle drawing nigh,
  To shake the Afghan passes strait and sheer.”
 
Like Aias by the Ships shouldst thou have stood,
  And in some glen have stayed the stream of flight,        10
The pillar of thy people and their shield,
Till Helmund or till Indus ran with blood,
  And back, towards the Northlands and the Night
The stricken Eagles scattered from the field.
 
 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
  PREVIOUSNEXT  
 
Loading
Click here to shop the Bartleby Bookstore.
Shakespeare · Bible · Saints · Anatomy · Harvard Classics · Lit. History · Quotations · Poetry
© 1993–2013 Bartleby.com · [Top 150]