God gave him gifts: nor gave in vain <br />The great heart and the master-brain <br />To dream, to battle, to attain, <br />To storm the height. <br />The power that all men strive to gain <br />Was his by right. <br />O saddest Spring in all the land! <br />O Mystery, hard to understand— <br />When, at the stern unknown command, <br />With icy breath, <br />Fate placed within his fearless hand <br />The gift of Death! <br /> <br />Calm be his sleep who lived to dare. <br />Go, say a patriot slumbers there <br />Whose brows were never bent to wear <br />His loftiest fame, <br />Yet wrote on Queensland’s page a rare— <br />A fadeless name! <br /> <br />He fought his fight: he won his goal. <br />His name is on the battle-scroll; <br />And, whilst beyond our weak control <br />The tears we shed <br />Well deep within a Nation’s soul, <br />He is not dead.<br /><br />George Essex Evans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thomas-joseph-byrnes/
