Landon in The Literary Gazette 1826/Tumuli

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literary Gazette, 7th October, 1826, Page 637

THE TUMULI.

The Dead! the Dead! and sleep they here,
    The lost of other years—
The Dead! the Dead! can they be here,
    Where nought of Death appears?

The Abbey it hath marble urn,
    The Churchyard humble stone,
The Pyramid its spectral dead,
    The Catacomb bleach'd bone.

But here is only sunny mound,
    So quiet in its rest,
That though the dew be gone, the hare
    Skips fearless on its breast.

A small green mound, a summer hill—
    Why stand and gaze we there?
Is it the consciousness of Death
    Upon the silent air?

Like Memory veiled, Tradition sits
    Beside the haunted place,
And dimly out-lines other days—
    Men of another race.

Race of the Forest Albyn's first,
    Is yon lone mound your grave?
Did the dark Druid's mystic spell
    Open earth's secret cave?

Or, rests the haughty Roman here,
    Who left his home and hearth,
To win—O madness of mankind!—
    A grave in foreign earth?

Or, was the fair-haired Saxon taught
    The Victor hath his doom?
Or, lie here piled the Dane's fierce ranks:—
    Who of them fill this tomb?

Yet these, so utterly forget^[1],
    Were heroes in their day;
And, like all heroes, thought their name
    Would never pass away.

Each had their creed of faith and fame;
    Priest's word or Minstrel's strain
Promised them immortality—
    And promised it in vain.

Here may have been shed man's best blood,
    There woman's bitterest tear;
Yet, of it all what now remains?—
    One question—Who sleeps here?
⁠L. E. L.

1. forgot(?)