A GREAT MAN
Reading edition
Ye muses, pour the pitying tear For Pollio snatch'd away: For had he liv'd another year! —He had not dy'd to-day.
O, were he born to bless mankind, In virtuous times of yore, Heroes themselves had fallen behind! —Whene'er he went before.
How sad the groves and plains appear, And sympathetic sheep: Even pitying hills would drop a tear! —If hills could learn to weep.
His bounty in exalted strain Each bard might well display: Since none implor'd relief in vain! —That went reliev'd away.
And hark! I hear the tuneful throng; His obsequies forbid. He still shall live, shall live as long —As ever dead man did.
Oliver Goldsmith.