Death & Dying

A Jacobite's Epitaph

by Thomas Babington Macaulay 1800–1859

From The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse (1912)

Death & Dying

To my true king I offer'd free from stain
Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain.
For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away,
And one dear hope, that was more prized than they.
For him I languish'd in a foreign clime,
Grey-hair'd with sorrow in my manhood's prime;
Heard on Lavernia Scargill's whispering trees,
And pined by Arno for my lovelier Tees;
Beheld each night my home in fever'd sleep,
Each morning started from the dream to weep;
Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave
The resting-place I ask'd, an early grave.
O thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone,
From that proud country which was once mine own,
By those white cliffs I never more must see,
By that dear language which I spake like thee,
Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear
O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here.

MLA

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. “A Jacobite's Epitaph.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/macaulay/0/.

Chicago

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. “A Jacobite's Epitaph.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/macaulay/0/.

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