Wednesday 30 June 2021

 James McAuley wrote: ‘Valediction: Roy Campbell’ 


He stood against the leveling stampede

And cracked the stockman’s whip of his polemic; 

He never left his friends or slurred his creed 

In times when cowardice grew epidemic. 

Action he loved, and honour, and the life 

Of simple men before machines were master. 

He gave a pure devotion to his wife, 

And said his rosary amidst disaster. 

Contemptuous of the babble of his time, 

He loved the Muses with a noble passion, 

Catching a golden splendour in his rhyme 

When rhyme and splendour both were out of fashion.

Who now shall bring back from our wars a song, 

Like Heracles returning with a trophy? 

May Christ who calls the singer from the throng 

Give stars and music to his heavenly strophe.

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