James Jeffrey Roche
James Jeffrey Roche Poems
This is the tale that was told to me,
By a battered and shattered son of the sea-
To me and my messmate, Silas Green,
...
It is better to die, since death comes surely,
In the full noontide of an honored name,
Than to lie at the end of years obscurely,
...
From the madding crowd they stand apart,
The maidens four and the Work of Art;
And none might tell from sight alone
...
Shall we, the storm-tossed sailors, weep
For those who may not sail again;
Or wisely envy them, and keep
Our pity for the living men?
...
Oh, if the world were mine, Love,
I'd give the world for thee!
Alas! there is no sign, Love,
...
THE LOVE of man and woman is as fire,
To warm, to light, but surely to consume
And self-consuming die. There is no room
...
To Amsterdam and its Commodore,
I over his pipe and his eau-de-vie,
A flibote skimming the Texel shore
...
Constitution
, where ye bound for?
Wherever, my lad, there's fight to be had,
...
Tell the story to your sons
Of the gallant days of yore
When the brig of seven guns
Fought the fleet of seven score,
...
In the gloomy ocean bed
Dwelt a formless thing, and said,
In the dim and countless eons long ago,
“I will build a stronghold high,
...
To Houston at Gonzales town, ride, Ranger, for your life,
I nor stop to say good-by to-day to home or child or wife;
...
The net of law is spread so wide,
No sinner from its sweep may hide.
Its meshes are so fine and strong,
...
Joy in rebel Plymouth town, in the spring of ‘sixty-four,
When the
Albemarle
down on the Yankee frigates bore,
...
I’d rather be handsome than homely;
I’d rather be youthful than old;
If I can’t have a bushel of silver
I’ll do with a barrel of gold.
...
James Jeffrey Roche Biography
James Jeffrey Roche (31 May 1847, Mountmellick, Queen's County, Ireland – 3 April 1908, Berne, Switzerland) was an Irish-American poet, journalist and diplomat. Roche was taken to the United States as a young child, and grew up in Prince Edward Island. In 1883 he joined the staff of the Boston Pilot as an assistant editor under John Boyle O'Reilly, and later became editor of the newspaper. At the end of his life he was the American Consul in Switzerland.)
The Best Poem Of James Jeffrey Roche
Gettysburg
There was no union in the land,
Though wise men labored long
With links of clay and ropes of sand
To bind the right and wrong.
There was no temper in the blade
That once could cleave a chain;
Its edge was dull with touch of trade
And clogged with rust of gain.
The sand and clay must shrink away
Before the lava tide:
By blows and blood and fire assay
The metal must be tried.
Here sledge and anvil met, and when
The furnace fiercest roared,
God's undiscerning workingmen
Reforged His people's sword.
Enough for them to ask and know
The moment's duty clear-
The bayonets flashed it there below,
The guns proclaimed it here:
To do and dare, and die at need,
But while life lasts, to fight-
For right or wrong a simple creed,
But simplest for the right.
They faltered not who stood that day
And held this post of dread;
Nor cowards they who wore the gray
Until the gray was red.
For every wreath the victor wears
The vanquished half may claim;
Every monument declares
A common pride and fame.
We raise no altar stones to Hate,
Who never bowed to fear:
No province crouches at our gate,
To shame our triumph here.
Here standing by a dead wrong's grave
The blindest now may see,
The blow that liberates the slave
But sets the master free!
When ills beset the nation's life
Too dangerous to bear,
The sword must be the surgeon's knife,
Too merciful to spare.
O Soldier of our common land,
'Tis thine to bear that blade
Loose in the sheath, or firm in hand,
But ever unafraid.
When foreign foes assail our right,
One nation trusts to thee-
To wield it well in worthy fight-
The sword of Meade and Lee.
James Jeffrey Roche Comments
James Jeffrey Roche Popularity
James Jeffrey Roche Popularity
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
4/27/2024 12:00:34 PM # 1.0.0.1119
