Lines: Written Under a Portrait of Theodore Winthrop

O KNIGHTLY soldier bravely dead !
O poet-soul too early sped !
O life so pure ! O life so brief !
Our hearts are moved with deeper grief,
As, dwelling on thy gentle face,
Its twilight smile, its tender grace,
We fill the shadowy years to be
With what had been thy destiny.
And still, amid our sorrow’s pain,
We feel the loss is yet our gain ;
For through the death we know the life,
Its gold in thought, its steel in strife,—
And so with reverent kiss we say
Adieu ! O Bayard of our day !