Thomas Kibble Hervey Quotes

Thomas Kibble Hervey's lines sound gritty and martial, for those drawn to vivid battle imagery and solemn sacrifice.

9 quotes

1. Wake, soldier, wake, thy war-horse waits To bear thee to the battle back; Thou slumberest at a foeman's gates,- Thy dog would break thy bivouac; Thy plume is trailing in the dust And thy red falchion gathering rust.

2. Gayly we glide in the gaze of the world With streamers afloat and with canvas unfurled, All gladness and glory to wandering eyes, Yet chartered by sorrow and freighted with sighs.

3. The tomb of him who would have made The world too glad and free.

4. He stood beside a cottage lone And listened to a lute, One summer's eve, when the breeze was gone, And the nightingale was mute.

5. A love that took an early root, And had an early doom.

6. Like ships, that sailed for sunny isles, But never came to shore.

7. A Hebrew knelt in the dying light, His eye was dim and cold, The hairs on his brow were silver-white, And his blood was thin and old.

8. Morn on the waters, and purple and bright Bursts on the billows the flushing of light O'er the glad waves, like a child of the sun, See the tall vessel goes gallantly on.

9. I know thou art gone to the home of thy rest-- Then why should my soul be so sad? I know thou art gone where the weary are blest, And the mourner looks up, and is glad; I know thou hast drank of the Lethe that flows In a land where they do not forget, That sheds over memory only repose, And takes from it only regret.