Wolfe.
"I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec to-morrow." - Wolfe, on hearing Gray's "Elegy" read the night before the capture of Quebec. Thou need'st no marble monuments to keep Thy fame immortal and thy memory An inspiration to make pulses leap And resolution spring to mastery. Thou need'st no gilded tablets on the walls Of cities, no imposing sepulchre, Imperishable Wolfe, whose name recalls The flower of kings, who bore Excalibur. The ultimate dispensers of renown, The poets, shall accord thee honor fit, And add fresh laurels ever to thy crown, High-minded hero, who hadst rather writ Those lines of one to every poet dear Than take the fortress of a hemisphere.
AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.
About this line
""I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec to-morrow." - Wolfe, on hearing Gray's "Elegy" read the night before the capture of Quebec...."
"Wolfe." is a quintessential example of W. M. MacKeracher's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...