Versos English Charles Sprague Peace to the mingling dead

English poem

Peace to the mingling dead

by (1857–1902)

Listen in the reader

Peace to the mingling dead! Beneath the turf we tread, Chief, Pilgrim, Patriot sleep— All gone! how changed! and yet the same, As when faith's herald bark first came In sorrow o'er the deep. Still from his noonday height, The sun looks down in light; Along the trackless realms of space, The stars still run their midnight race; The same green valleys smile, the same rough shore Still echoes to the same wild ocean's roar:— But where the bristling night-wolf sprang Upon his startled prey, Where the fierce Indian's war-cry rang, Through many a bloody fray; And where the stern old Pilgrim prayed In solitude and gloom, Where the bold Patriot drew his blade, And dared a patriot's doom— Behold! in liberty's unclouded blaze, We lift our heads, a race of other days.