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By the Aurelian Wall and Other Elegies

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{87} <h2>A NORSE CHILD’S REQUIEM</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Sleep soundly, little Thorlak, Where all thy peers have lain, A hero of no battle, A saint without a stain! </div> <div class="stanza"> Thy courage be upon thee, Unblemished by regret, For that adventure whither Thy tiny march was set.{88} </div> <div class="stanza"> The sunshine be above thee, With birds and winds and trees. Thy way-fellows inherit No better things than these. </div> <div class="stanza"> And silence be about thee, Turned back from this our war To front alone the valley Of night without a star. </div> <div class="stanza"> The soul of love and valor, Indifferent to fame, Be with thee, heart of vikings, Beyond the breath of blame.{89} </div> <div class="stanza"> Thy moiety of manhood Unspent and fair, go down, And, unabashed, encounter Thy brothers of renown. </div> <div class="stanza"> So modest in thy freehold And tenure of the earth, Thy needs, for all our meddling, Are few and little worth. </div> <div class="stanza"> Content thee, not with pity; Be solaced, not with tears; But when the whitethroats waken Through the revolving years,{90} </div> <div class="stanza"> Hereafter be that peerless And dirging cadence, child, Thy threnody unsullied, Melodious, and wild. </div> <div class="stanza"> Then winter be thy housing, Thy lullaby the rain, Thou hero of no battle, Thou saint without a stain. </div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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