Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GRAVES OF MARTYRS, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GRAVES OF MARTYRS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The kings of old have shrine and tomb
Last Line: Unknown to man, is marked of god!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Graves; Martyrs; Tombs; Tombstones


THE kings of old have shrine and tomb
In many a minster's haughty gloom;
And green, along the ocean side,
The mounds arise where heroes died;
But show me, on thy flowery breast,
Earth, where thy nameless martyrs rest!

The thousands that, uncheered by praise,
Have made one offering of their days;
For Truth, for Heaven, for Freedom's sake,
Resigned the bitter cup to take:
And silently, in fearless faith,
Bowing their noble souls to death.

Where sleep they, Earth? By no proud stone
Their narrow couch of rest is known;
The still sad glory of their name
Hallows no fountain unto Fame;
No -- not a tree the record bears
Of their deep thoughts and lonely prayers.

Yet haply all around lie strewed
The ashes of that multitude:
It may be that each day we tread
Where thus devoted hearts have bled;
And the young flowers our children sow,
Take root in holy dust below.

Oh, that the many-rustling leaves,
Which round our homes the summer weaves,
Or that the streams, in whose glad voice
Our own familiar paths rejoice,
Might whisper through the starry sky,
To tell where those blest slumberers lie!

Would not our inmost hearts be stilled,
With knowledge of their presence filled,
And by its breathings taught to prize
The meekness of self-sacrifice?
-- But the old woods and sounding waves
Are silent of those hidden graves.

Yet what if no light footstep there
In pilgrim-love and awe repair,
So let it be! Like him, whose clay
Deep buried by his Maker lay,
They sleep in secret, -- but their sod,
Unknown to man, is marked of God!





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