CHARLES GEORGE GORDON.

By Austin Henry Dobson

“Rather be dead than praised,” he said,

That hero, like a hero dead,

In this slack-sinewed age endued

With more than antique fortitude!

“Rather be dead than praised!” Shall we,

Who loved thee, now that Death sets free

Thine eager soul, with word and line

Profane that empty house of thine?

Nay,— let us hold, be mute. Our pain

Will not be less that we refrain;

And this our silence shall but be

A larger monument to thee.