Faces and Places

E-text prepared by Ruth Golding
Brave Burnaby down! Wheresoever 'tis spoken The news leaves the lips with a wistful regret We picture that square in the desert, shocked, broken, Yet packed with stout hearts, and impregnable yet And there fell, at last, in close mêlée, the fighter Who Death had so often affronted before; One deemed he'd no dart for his valorous slighter Who such a gay heart to the battle-front bore. But alas! for the spear thrust that ended a story Romantic as Roland's, as Lion-Heart's brief Yet crowded with incident, gilded with glory And crowned by a laurel that's verdant of leaf. A latter-day Paladin, prone to adventure, With little enough of the spirit that sways The man of the market, the shop, the indenture! Yet grief-drops will glitter on Burnaby's bays. Fast friend as keen fighter, the strife glow preferring, Yet cheery all round with his friends and his foes; Content through a life-story short, yet soul-stirring And happy, as doubtless he'd deem, in its close.
Lifts its tall head and like a bully lies,
Then from those cavernous eyes Pale flashes seem to rise, As when the northern skies Gleam In December.
'Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye. I feel my heart new opened. O how wretched Is the poor man that hangs on princes' favours! There is betwixt the smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes and their ruin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have.'
'Me pascant olivae, Me cichorea, levesque malvae, Frui paratis, et valido mihi, Latoe, dones, et, precor, integra Cum----'
Me Parnassi deserta per ardua dulcis Raptat amor: juvat ire jugis, qua nulla priorum Castaliam molli divertitur orbita clivo.
At our old pastimes in the hall We gambol'd making vain pretence Of gladness, With an awful sense Of one mute Shadow watching all.
Ho, my comrades! see the signal Waving in the sky; Reinforcements now appearing, Victory is nigh! 'Hold the fort, for I am coming,' Jesus signals still; Wave the answer back to Heaven, 'By Thy grace we Will.'