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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  “O, breathe not his name”

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

Descriptive Poems: I. Personal: Rulers; Statesmen; Warriors

“O, breathe not his name”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

Robert Emmet

O, BREATHE not his name! let it sleep in the shade,

Where cold and unhonored his relics are laid;

Sad, silent, and dark be the tears that we shed,

As the night-dew that falls on the grave o’er his head.

But the night-dew that falls, though in silence it weeps,

Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps;

And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls,

Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.