Lines on the Death of Edward John Trelawny

Last high star of the years whose thunder     Still mens listening remembrance hears,     Last light left of our fathers years,     Watched with honour and hailed with wonder     Thee too then have the years borne under,     Thou too then hast regained thy peers.     Wings that warred with the winds of morning,     Storm-winds rocking the red great dawn,     Close at last, and a film is drawn     Over the eyes of the storm-bird, scorning     Now no longer the loud winds warning,     Waves that threaten or waves that fawn.     Peers were none of thee left us living,     Peers of theirs we shall see no more.     Eight years over the full fourscore     Knew thee: now shalt thou sleep, forgiving     All griefs past of the wild worlds giving,     Moored at last on the stormless shore.     Worldwide libertys lifelong lover,     Lover no less of the strength of song,     Sea-king, swordsman, hater of wrong,     Over thy dust that the dust shall cover     Comes my song as a bird to hover,     Borne of its will as of wings along.     Cherished of thee were this brief songs brothers     Now that follows them, cherishing thee.     Over the tides and the tideless sea     Soft as a smile of the earth our mothers     Flies it faster than all those others,     First of the troop at thy tomb to be.     Memories of Greece and the mountains hollow     Guarded alone of thy loyal sword     Hold thy name for our hearts in ward:     Yet more fain are our hearts to follow     One way now with the southward swallow     Back to the grave of the man their lord.     Heart of hearts, art thou moved not, hearing     Surely, if hearts of the dead may hear,     Whose true heart it is now draws near?     Surely the sense of it thrills thee, cheering     Darkness and death with the news now nearing     Shelley, Trelawny rejoins thee here.