Ode Written in Mdccxlvi
William Collins · 1746
Public domain
From The Golden Treasury, selected by Francis Turner Palgrave. William Collins. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their Country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung:
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell a weeping hermit, there!