A Dead Musician

I saw you often in the happy days

When you were such a stalwart of our crew

Heaving the banner-pole we tried to raise;

None put the music to the work like you.

And then you took the service of the Queen

(Earth’s loveliest Queen), and lovely help you gave.

O may the foreign grass be ever green,

For that devotion’s sake, upon your grave.

All thought, save of her beauty, you put by.

All wealth you counted dust beside her worth.

For that devotion’s sake, till memory die,

May men lay flowers on your gentle earth.

John Masefield