The Dusty Bookcase: Broadsides

11 November 2019

Remembrance Day

Verse by Edna Jaques written the year after the Armistice.

IN FLANDERS NOW

We have kept faith, ye Flanders' dead,
Sleep well beneath those poppies red,
That mark your place.
The torch your dying hands did throw,
We've held it high before the foe,
And answered bitter blow for blow,
In Flanders' fields.

And where your heroes' blood was spilled,
The guns are now forever stilled,
And silent grown.
There is no moaning of the slain,
There is no cry of tortured pain,
And blood will never flow again
In Flanders' fields.

Forever holy in our sight,
Shall be those crosses gleaming white,
That guard your sleep.
Rest you in peace, the task is done,
The fight you left us we have won.
And "Peace on Earth" has just begun,
In Flanders now.

07 April 2013

'IN MEMORIAM! The Hon. T.D. McGee'

IN MEMORIAM!

The Hon. T.D. McGee

Dedicated to his sorrowing Widow

"Cum lugeate, lugebo."

Dead! – and by a death terrific! –
Erin, hear it! – Can it be,
The young spirit so prolific
Beats no more in great McGee?
  Dies irae! – break it gently
Oh! let pleasure hold her breath!
For 'tis true that tongue so mighty
Now lies cold in silent death!

Breathe his name in muffled numbers!
Gather, nations, round his brier!
Gaze upon him as he slumbers,
Starting pity's choicest tear!
Nature seems to've caught the spirit
Of his sad, yet noble fall,
And, through sympathy for merit,
Drops to-day her virgin pall.

Envy may spit all her rancour –
Strike at honesty her best –
She but does her body honour,
While she sends his soul to rest.
  Patriot, orator,and statesman
Of unsullied purity;
With such pow'rs were interwoven
Fairest flow'rs of poetry.

But no longer chained in wonder
Shall admiring throngs rejoice,
Or give back applause in thunder
To the magic of his voice!
  Hope, though like a paraphelion,
Cheers us in our awful gloom:
For 'tis sweet to know Religion
Smoothed his pathway to the tomb.

Noblest forms must soon or layer,
Mingle with their kindred dust,
While their spirits rise to brighter
Regions of the happy just.
Spirits! bear his soul to heaven!
And, what's left, – a glorious name! –
Be it reverently given
To be canonized by fame!

Ah! but who can consolation.
To his orphans now impart!
Or can sooth in dereliction
His poor widow's breaking heart!
Let us breathe a De profundis,
That a bright eternity
May receive the spirit of his
Own originality!

  – P.J. Buckley
Grand Seminary
Montreal, 8th April 1868