Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Coblentz

Coblentz

By Lord Byron (1788–1824)

(From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage)

BY Coblentz, on a rise of gentle ground,

There is a small and simple pyramid,

Crowning the summit of the verdant mound;

Beneath its base are heroes’ ashes hid,

Our enemy’s; but let not that forbid

Honor to Marceau, o’er whose early tomb

Tears, big tears, gushed from the rough soldier’s lid,

Lamenting and yet envying such a doom,—

Falling for France, whose rights he battled to resume.

Brief, brave, and glorious was his young career:

His mourners were two hosts,—his friends and foes,—

And fitly may the stranger lingering here

Pray for his gallant spirit’s bright repose;

For he was Freedom’s champion, one of those,

The few in number, who had not o’erstept

The charter to chastise which she bestows

On such as wield her weapons: he had kept

The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o’er him wept.