RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: peep on Tuesday 25 August 09 13:04 BST (UK)
-
Can anybody identify this poem please. It was on an obituary of a soldier who had died leaving behind his beloved fiance
’Twas not to be, that dream of blissful rest.
That pictured harmony of peaceful years
Dearer to one who, leaving tented field,
Could to the full enjoy the sweets of home
The cry went forth “To arms”, and forth he went
In manly vigour, she, with women’s pride,
Kept back her tears content to feel that he
Would, fresh from new-won battles, claim her wife.
So ends the dreams, he died for Britain’s fame,
She weeping now, shall proudly down the years
Speak of her hero, as one called to rest
Enshrouded in the mists of mem’rys tears
Sleep well bold-hearted soldier, real and true,
Staunch in thy friendships, e’en to foemen kind.
Thy comrades mourn thee – and in silent grief
Condole with her whom God has left behind.
-
I've googled a couple of the lines and not come up with anything and to be honest, it reminds me a bit of the self-penned verse/doggerel printed in my local paper's "rememberance" columns, so I wouldn't be too surprised if the bereft fiancee had penned it herself!
Ermy
-
Try this link from The Sheetmusic Warehouse, there are two songs with the title Twas Not To Be, one copy of the sheetmusic of a 1905 song costs £8 and the other from 1878 costs £11. I suppose you could contact them and ask if either song has the words you quote.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/06yq/
You'll have to scroll quite a long way down the page (alternatively click Edit at the top of the page, then Find, type in Twas, and click Next a few times).
Lizzie
-
I wouldn't be too surprised if the bereft fiancee had penned it herself!
Ermy
I am inclined to agree with that,the words don't rhyme,and it is the sort of thing.A grief stricken person would do, fiance or not. People seemed to have been very poetic in those days
Celia