INTREPID sons of Albion! not by you <br />Is life despised; ah no, the spacious earth <br />Ne'er saw a race who held, by right of birth, <br />So many objects to which love is due: <br />Ye slight not life--to God and Nature true; <br />But death, becoming death, is dearer far, <br />When duty bids you bleed in open war: <br />Hence hath your prowess quelled that impious crew. <br />Heroes!--for instant sacrifice prepared; <br />Yet filled with ardour and on triumph bent <br />'Mid direst shocks of mortal accident-- <br />To you who fell, and you whom slaughter spared <br />To guard the fallen, and consummate the event, <br />Your Country rears this sacred Monument!<br /><br />William Wordsworth<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/occasioned-by-the-battle-of-waterloo-february-1816/
