Poems That Every Child Should Know/How Sleep the Brave

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For other versions of this work, see Ode Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746.
56303Poems That Every Child Should Know — How Sleep the BraveWilliam Collins (1721-1759)

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.