Page:Poems Dorr.djvu/81

Come, tell us tales, thou bell,
 Of those of old renown,
Those sturdy warrior kings who fought
 For sceptre and for crown.
Tell of the lion-hearts
 Whose pulses moved the world;
Whose banners flew so swift and far,
 O'er land and sea unfurled!

From out the buried years,
 From many a vaulted tomb,
Whence neither pomp nor power could chase
 The dim, sepulchral gloom,
Lo, now, a pale, proud line,
 They glide before our eyes!—
Art thou a wizard, mighty bell,
 To bid the dead arise?

But toll, toll on, thou bell!
 Toll for the royal dead;
Toll—for the hand now sceptreless;
 Toll—for the crownless head;
Toll—for the human heart
 With all its loves and woes;
Toll—for the soul that passes now
 Unto its long repose!