Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CAMPBELL'S FUNERAL, by HORACE SMITH Poet's Biography First Line: Tis well to see these accidental great Last Line: This all-unworthy wreath on such a poet's bier. Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio Subject(s): Birth; Funerals; Nature; Poetry & Poets; Child Birth; Midwifery; Burials | ||||||||
'TIS well to see these accidental great, Noble by birth, or Fortune's favour blind, Gracing themselves in adding grace and state To the more noble eminence of mind, And doing homage to a bard Whose breast by Nature's gems was starred, Whose patent by the hand of God himself was signed. While monarchs sleep, forgotten, unrevered, Time trims the lamp of intellectual fame: The builders of the pyramids, who reared Mountains of stone, left none to tell their name. Though Homer's tomb was never known, A mausoleum of his own, Long as the world endures his greatness shall proclaim. What lauding sepulchre does Campbell want? 'Tis his to give, and not derive renown. What monumental bronze or adamant, Like his own deathless lays can hand him down? Poets outlast their tombs: the bust And statue soon revert to dust; The dust they represent still wears the laurel crown. The solid Abbey walls that seem time-proof, Formed to await the final day of doom; The clustered shafts and arch-supported roof, That now enshrine and guard our Campbell's tomb, Become a ruined shattered fane, May fall and bury him again, Yet still the bard shall live, his fame-wreath still shall bloom. Methought the monumental effigies Of elder poets that were grouped around, Leaned from their pedestals with eager eyes, To peer into the excavated ground Where lay the gifted, good, and brave, While earth from Kosciusko's grave Fell on his coffin-plate with freedom-shrieking sound. And over him the kindred dust was strew'd Of Poets' Corner. O misnomer strange! The poet's confine is the amplitude Of the whole earth's illimitable range, O'er which his spirit wings its flight, Shedding an intellectual light, A sun that never sets, a moon that knows no change. Around his grave in radiant brotherhood, As if to form a halo o'er his head, Not few of England's master-spirits stood, Bards, artists, sages, reverently led To waive each separating plea Of sect, clime, party, and degree, All honouring him on whom Nature all honours shed. To me the humblest of the mourning band, Who knew the bard through many a changeful year, It was a proud sad privilege to stand Beside his grave and shed a parting tear. Seven lustres had he been my friend, Be that my plea when I suspend This all-unworthy wreath on such a poet's bier. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FUNERAL SERMON by ANDREW HUDGINS RETURN FROM DELHI by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE SCATTERING OF EVAN JONES'S ASHES by GALWAY KINNELL BROWNING'S FUNERAL by H. T. MACKENZIE BELL FALLING ASLEEP OVER THE AENEID by ROBERT LOWELL MY FATHER'S BODY by WILLIAM MATTHEWS ADDRESS TO THE MUMMY AT BELZONI'S EXHIBITION by HORACE SMITH |
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