English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 571. A Jacobite’s Epitaph |
| | | Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lord Macaulay (1800–1859) |
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| TO my true king I offered, free from stain, | |
| Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain. | |
| For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away, | |
| And one dear hope, that was more prized than they. | |
| For him I languished in a foreign clime, | 5 |
| Grey-haired with sorrow in my manhood’s prime; | |
| Heard on Lavernia Scargill’s whispering trees, | |
| And pined by Arno for my lovelier Tees; | |
| Beheld each night my home in fevered sleep, | |
| Each morning started from the dream to weep; | 10 |
| Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave | |
| The resting-place I asked, an early grave. | |
| O thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone, | |
| From that proud country which was once mine own, | |
| By those white cliffs I never more must see, | 15 |
| By that dear language which I spake like thee, | |
| Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear | |
| O’er English dust. A broken heart lies here. | |
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