Poems That Every Child Should Know/How Sleep the Brave
For other versions of this work, see Ode Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746.
How Sleep the Brave.
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 a while repair
To dwell a weeping hermit there!
William Collins.