Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VII. Descriptive: Narrative. 1904. | | | | Descriptive Poems: I. Personal: Great Writers | | Longfellow | | Austin Dobson (1840–1921) |
| | In Memoriam | | Nec turpem senectam |
| Degere, nec cithara carentem. |
“NOT to be tuneless in old age!” | |
| Ah! surely blest his pilgrimage, | |
| Who, in his winter’s snow, | |
| Still sings with note as sweet and clear | |
| As in the morning of the year | 5 |
| When the first violets blow! | |
| |
| Blest!—but more blest, whom summer’s heat, | |
| Whom spring’s impulsive stir and beat, | |
| Have taught no feverish lure; | |
| Whose Muse, benignant and serene, | 10 |
| Still keeps his autumn chaplet green | |
| Because his verse is pure! | |
| |
| Lie calm, O white and laureate head! | |
| Lie calm, O Dead, that art not dead, | |
| Since from the voiceless grave | 15 |
| Thy voice shall speak to old and young | |
| While song yet speaks our English tongue | |
| By Charles’ or Thamis’ wave. | | | | |
|
|
