RPO -- William Collins : Ode, Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746

William Collins (1721-1759)

Ode, Written in the Beginning of the Year 1746

1How sleep the brave who sink to rest

2By all their country's wishes blest!

3When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,

4Returns to deck their hallow'd mold,

5She there shall dress a sweeter sod

6Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.

7By fairy hands their knell is rung,

8By forms unseen their dirge is sung;

9There Honour comes, a pilgrim grey,

10To bless the turf that wraps their clay;

11And Freedom shall awhile repair,

12To dwell a weeping hermit there!

Notes

1] In 1745 English forces were engaged on the Continent in the War of the Austrian Succession (the Battle of Fontenoy, May 1745). But the reference is more probably to those Englishmen who died at Preston Pans (September 1745) and Falkirk (January 1746) where English troops were defeated by the forces of the Young Pretender (the grandson of James II), who claimed the British throne.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: William Collins, Odes on several descriptive and allegoric subjects (London: A. Millar ..., 1747 [i.e. 1746]). pam Fisher Library (Rare Books).
RPO poem editor: G. G. Falle
RP edition: 3RP 2.209.
Recent editing: 4:2002/2/3

Form: Short Couplets

Other poems by William Collins